BREAKING NEWS: TRUEX OUT OF CHASE, NEWMAN IN
Ryan Newman will drive for Richard Childress Racing in 2014 but was hoping to finish the final ten races at Stewart Haas Racing competing for a championship in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
Instead the driver of the No. 39 Chevrolet will be racing for 13th place in the standings after seeing a win at the 3/4 mile Richmond International Raceway taken away from him when Clint Bowyer spun.
Bowyer’s spin and loss of two laps coupled with Brian Vickers making a pit stop and slowing at the end of the race helped their Michael Waltrip Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. earn a spot in NASCAR’s Chase.
When interviewed after the race Newman initially blamed his failure to make the Chase on a poor pitstop. After seeing everything that happened at the end of Saturday nights race he now believes that MWR changed the outcome of the race and the Chase.
Newman described the incident at Richmond as “the toughest thing I’ve ever gone through in any kind of racing in my 30 years of driving.”
“Right now it’s tough to comment on it because I know it’s being reviewed,” Newman said, referring to NASCAR’s ongoing investigation of the Bowyer incident. “But I do know that based on my opinion inside a race car, and watching and listening [to recorded radio conversation between Bowyer and his crew] and understanding the communication that there was then, it was not entirely an accident.”
NASCAR is currently reviewing the situation.
Bowyer’s spin also allowed Joey Logano to claim a spot inside the top ten, which prevented Jeff Gordon from making the Chase.
