Winless title contender Ryan Newman 'just having some fun'
With Sunday's race at Phoenix International Raceway set to determine the four drivers who will battle for the Sprint Cup title in a one-race, winner-take-all affair at Homestead-Miami Speedway next weekend, Ryan Newman is in an enviable spot.
The Richard Childress Racing wheelman is ranked third among the eight remaining championship-eligible drivers, and sits only two points behind co-championship leaders Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin while holding a 10-point edge on fourth-place Jeff Gordon.
But more important than Newman's position in relation to first or fourth is the 11-point buffer he maintains over Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards, the two drivers tied for fifth.
Provided that none of the title contenders wins Sunday's race at the flat, 1-mile Arizona track, all Newman needs to do to reach the championship round is merely remain in the top four.
Based on the way Newman has performed the past few weeks -- he had five consecutive top-10 finishes prior to a 15th-place finish last Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway -- becoming one of the four championship finalists is well-within reach.
Newman doesn't mind that as one of two remaining title contenders without a win this season -- Kenseth is the other -- he is widely regarded as a sleeper, of sorts, in the championship battle.
"I don't really pay any attention to it," he said. "I'm enjoying the position I'm in. I'm enjoying the camaraderie and the teamwork that we have at RCR, and the guys at ECR (Earnhardt Childress Racing Engines) are doing a good job. I'm just having some fun with it.
"I'm not really so much worried about what somebody thinks of me and if I'm a sleeper or an underdog or the odd man out or whatever you want to call me. I'm having fun, and that's what it's supposed to be about."
Newman doesn't feel particularly giddy or surprised to still be in the running for his first title, despite his dearth of wins in 2014.
"We're just doing our job," said Newman, a past winner of both the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400. "We've kept ourselves in the hunt. We're doing our job and having fun doing it. I don't let the emotions side of it carry any real weight."
Newman joined Richard Childress Racing ahead of the 2014 season after being let go from Stewart-Haas Racing, where he spent five seasons and achieved modest success.
RCR, while generally regarded as one of the sport's five or six best organizations, hasn't captured a title in NASCAR's top series since Dale Earnhardt did so 20 years ago.
So did Newman expect to be a title contender in Year One with a new team?
"I've never doubted my ability as a driver," he said. "I think that's my responsibility. But you never know what situation you're going to be in from an ownership standpoint or from an engine standpoint and the ability of the people around you to perform. You never have that knowledge, I think, until you get so many races under your belt to be able to prove it.
"Thirty some races now, we've had a lot of fun and done a lot of good things and been super-consistent and we're at this point. So I never thought of it as a move to whither away or continue my racing career and let it just 'happen.' I still want to win this championship."
