NEWMAN IN BATTLE FOR THE CHASE

Ryan Newman will make his 13th Cup start at Michigan International Speedway in Sunday's 3M Performance 400. It will be his 211th career start in the Cup Series.

 

Newman has an average start of 9.1 and an average finish of 16.7. Only one of Newman's starts has been lower than 12th - a 42nd in June 2006 after he spun in turn three before completing his first lap. Two starts were from 12th and the remaining 10 have all been from the top 10.

 

Two of Newman's four top-five finishes resulted in victories at the 2-mile speedway. He has two other finishes inside the top 15 and four of 25th or lower.

"I always like racing at Michigan. I've always said that this is my home track, so being there is like going home to race in front of my hometown crowd," Newman said.

 

The No. 12 Alltel team is bringing chassis PRS-108 to the track this weekend. This is the same car Newman drove in Chicago in July to an eighth-place finish.

 

"We're in the hunt for the Chase and each week it feels like we're getting closer and closer to moving into that 12th spot," Newman said. "We've only got four more races left, so this whole team is working extremely hard to do our best and make it into the Chase this year. I think we have a really good chance of doing that and being in contention for a championship run."

 

At Michigan, Newman has led 91 laps in seven races. He has completed 2,161 laps of a possible 2,329, contributing to his 92.8% completion rate at the Brooklyn, Mich. track.

 

Sunday's 200-lap 3M Performance 400 takes the green flag at 2 p.m. (ET). Qualifying is set for Friday at 3:10 p.m. (ET).