Ryan Newman Martinsville II Friday media visit

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET met with members of the media at Martinsville Speedway and discussed the final short track of the season, changes to be made at the Daytona 500 and other topics.

Ryan Newman, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet

Photo by: Action Sports Photography

TALK ABOUT THE WEEKEND AND YOUR OUTLOOK AT THE FINAL SHORT TRACK OF THE SEASON: “Our performance here at Martinsville and general short tracks is pretty good and look forward to the opportunity. If seems like the fall race here in Martinsville we get rain one of the three days, so I guess I would rather have it today, then Sunday, but just look forward to the opportunity to get on the racetrack if we do get that lucky today and we will see how things go. Our Chase itself has not been anything to really brag about so, having a good weekend here at Martinsville is something that would be nice.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK NEEDS TO BE DONE TO CHANGE THE DYNAMIC FOR THE DAYTONA 500? “I don’t know all depends on what the fans want to see. Talladega, I think there has been a definite decline in the excitement and the fans, what they want to see, I am not 100% sure what they want to see, I know there is a percentage of them that want to see the big crashes, which I am not signed up for that, but the racing was decided by .0018 of a second or something, so as long as we race cars at those types of race tracks and try to keep them within a certain speed window of 190-200 mph, we are going to be in the same type of situation that we are, no matter if you cut the spoilers, or change the restrictor plates or whatever, you are still keeping a car at that speed which is big on crashing because you are sustaining that speed all the way around the race track instead of a place like Michigan where your top speed is about the same but your mid-corner speed is significantly down, so I don’t know I mean, I would rather not use my opinion on that because it has not been taken into consideration so many other times.”

WHY IS IT THAT MARTINSVILLE IS SO DIFFICULT AND THE LAST PLACE FOR PEOPLE TO GET USED TO AND GET THE HANG OF? “I think for the most part we don’t spend our time thinking about it or doing it, we come to the shortest track, I guess it is not the exact shortest but anyway, we come to the shortest, short style flat track twice a year, Martinsville and Richmond are the two shortest flat tracks that are like our short track, growing up days. My point is we spend so much time at those mile-and-a-half race tracks where the speeds higher and you have a different balance, you have a different car feel, that it is not something that we spend a lot of time working on or working with. I think there are some guys that find it challenging, we have been very fortunate that we have a good baseline set-up package for these types of short tracks and I think it is more just a matter of where you place most of your effort, as far as the season goes.”

IF YOU ARE GOING TO A NASCAR THEMED HALLOWEEN PARTY, WHAT DRIVER OR OWNER WOULD YOU DRESS-UP AS PAST OR PRESENT? “I guess the no brainer for me would be to dress up like Sheriff Helton, saw him in the commercial there at Charlotte week, he is the sheriff and I am pretty sure no one would mess with you at the Halloween party”

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