Penske - Noting Newman - Oct. 16, 2007

-- Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 12 Alltel Dodge Avenger, will make his 12th Cup start at Martinsville Speedway. It will be his 220th career start in the Cup Series.

-- Newman has an average start of 5.8 and an average finish of 15.1. He only has one start outside the top 10a 24th in April after he spun during his qualifying lapand eight starts inside the top five, including two Bud Pole Awards..

-- Newman has five top-10 finishes at Martinsville, all from the top five. He has four other finishes inside the top 20.

-- Newman has led 83 laps in four Martinsville races. He has completed 5,190 laps of a possible 5,500 since he made his Cup debut at the Virginia track in 2002. Newman has a completion rate of 94.4 percent at the half-mile track.

-- Newman's primary car this weekend is chassis PRS-509, which was last used at Loudon, N.H., where the Indiana native qualified fifth and finished ninth. The backup car is PRS-519, which was tested at Charlotte in August, but has not been used in a race.

Newman On Martinsville: We were so close to getting that win at Charlotte. It wouldve been really nice to get a win at Lowes, but well just have to wait another week.

Ive never won at Martinsville, but Ive had some good runs there. We had a little bit of a problem during qualifying there earlier this year, but we still pulled out a 14th-place finish. Weve got a good COT program at Penske, so I think we have a good shot at getting another good finish there this weekend.