It may still turn out that his 33rd-place finish in New Hampshire last week will cost Ryan Newman the Nextel Cup. But Sunday in the MBNA America 400, Newman drove to a dominating 8.149-second victory over Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon.
The result pulled Newman back into the hunt for the Cup, just 107 points behind Gordon, who leaped two spots into the points lead.
“We can’t keep being 33rd one week and first the next,” Newman said. “But if we can keep the top-fives going, I can guarantee us the championship. This was a big step in the right direction.”
Newman and his No. 12 Dodge started second, on the outside of the first row, and by the end of the first lap he had passed pole-sitter Jeremy Mayfield for the lead. It was a place he held for 325 of the 400 laps on the one-mile oval, averaging 119.067 m.p.h.
“I don’t know how many times I passed lapped cars, but it seemed like every eight laps,” said Newman, who has won three of the last four Dover races. “I guess that’s a good thing.”
When he crossed the finish line, there were just eight drivers left on the lead lap.
“I thought I had something for Ryan on that last restart with 65 laps to go,” Martin said. “But, boy, I was so wrong.”
Going into the third of 10 races in the Chase for the Nextel Cup next week in Talladega, Ala., the 10 drivers competing for the title are within 157 points of the lead. Six of them are within 100, and eight of the Chase drivers finished in the top 10 Sunday.
Only Dale Jarrett, whose Ford finished fourth, and Jamie McMurray, who was eighth in his Dodge, crashed the top-10 party.
“I think this is what you’re going to see,” Gordon said. “That’s why these guys are in the top 10 in points. I think what you’re seeing happen at this point in the season is everybody is in his groove. Everybody’s got their stuff together.”
Among Chase drivers, only Elliott Sadler and Matt Kenseth finished deep in the field. Both had tire troubles made worse by their entries to pit road.
Kenseth, who led 58 laps and had one of the few cars able to challenge Newman in the early going, was coming to the pits to check his tires when he spun into the protective barrier at the pit road entrance. He eventually finished 32nd, 81 laps down.
Sadler finished 20th after being assessed a speeding penalty when he came flying into the pits for a tire change.
