Ryan Newman Finishes 39th - 2007 Chase Hopes Are Crushed

Ryan Newman and his #12 Kodak Dodge team were running really good at California. Newman hung out in the top 10 most of the night. He dropped back a couple of times and easily made it back to the front.

On lap 95 Jeff Burton got into the back of Newman as Newman chased the #12 Kodak Dodge up the track. Burton had no choice but to get in the back of Nemwan because he had traffic on his tail.

Newman spun from the contact and brought out the caution. He got a flat due to the spin and fell to 24th.

You know Ryan Newman's car was running good because by lap 122 he was back up to 8th.

Then on lap 203 out of the 250 lap race, Newman lost his engine....again. At that point, his 2007 Chase hopes were officially crushed. He now sits -254 out of 12th. This leaves him absolutely no chance of getting into the 2007 Chase with only 1 race left before the Chase begins.

In his interview after loosing the engine, Newman said this will not "mentally" affect the rest of his season. He said that he had already accepted the fact that making the chase this year would be a miracle. He followed up by saying that he will still race every lap like it's the last on.

In the Busch series last night, Newman thought he had lost an engine their ending his night early. In actuallity, he had only broke a spark plug.

I think Newman will be the first of the "backend" finishing 13th for the season.

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On another note, I did not like Kodaks new paint scheme for Ryan Newman. I am not sure if this is permanent, or a one time thing. I know the it was part of a contest and the paint scheme you saw in tonights race was the winning result.

I don't want to say that I did not like it, but I really like the "yellow and red" original paint scheme. It was VERY easy to see on the track. I would every once in awhile get it confused with Harvicks car. But tonights paint scheme was just VERY hard to see on the track.

But congrats to the winner of that competion.
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IMPORTANT -

And on another note from the race. I thought that the officials TOOK FOREVER to get the fire extinguished from Michael Waltrips #55 car after it burst into flames.

Waltrip cut a tire down and as he was doing about 185mph. The tire descentigrated and you could see shrpnel shooting up and hitting the underside of his hood. Then the car burst into flames. And as the camera is on Waltrip, you see flames INSIDE the car.

Waltrip got the car stopped and before he even got stopped he had his safety net down.

Good ol' Rusty Wallace was commentating on how fast the safety crew was there and how good of a job they did.

I HAVE TO DISAGREE. They were there fast.....and then they stood around. They stood around long enough for my fiance and I to yells several times for them to use the fire extinguisers instead of just lookng at them.

And Waltrip was obviously having problems getting out as he was "hung up" on something.

Waltrip got out unharmed, but I think the saftey crew were slow to react once they were on the ground.


TOP 10 Finihers at California -

1 2 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet
2 19 99 Carl Edwards Ford
3 5 5 Kyle Busch Chevrolet
4 15 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet
5 7 8 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet
6 8 1 Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet
7 36 17 Matt Kenseth Ford
8 17 83 Brian Vickers Toyota
9 1 2 Kurt Busch Dodge
10 3 9 Kasey Kahne Dodge