Ryan Newman Was The NASCAR Qualifying GOAT

[@IanTheMotorsportsMan_YT]

From NASCAR Qualifying’s Rocketman to 2023 SRX Champion!

[@Demise90Racing]

Yeah, the timing of this video just happened to line up with him winning the SRX championship last night. Well deserved for Ryan.

[@aldouscoroza]

Dude was a Rocket for Pole every Damn Weekend

[@Demise90Racing]

It was insane how good he was in those early Penske days.

[@l88ch3r]

Ryan Newman was the man who got me into NASCAR when I was a preteen. That guy was lightning fast and was intelligent and well spoken to boot. He just never could seem to convert those pole positions into quality wins later in his career it seems. I fell out of contact with the sport, probably right around the time he stopped running the 12. Anyway, thanks again for the awesome content @demise90

[@brandensimmons653]

The Rocket man doesn't disappoint

[@dominicbarden4436]

He seems to have a pole:win ratio in a similar manner to Charles Leclerc in F1, who currently (as of the 2023 Belgian GP) has 20 poles and 5 wins compared to Newman's 51 poles and 18 wins in NASCAR Cup.

[@TwoAcresandaMule]

Damn straight he was a legend at it. I'll always remember Newman for being the hardest mfer to pass on the whole track

[@noaahhhoke4012]

This was an excellent video and really shed light on how great Ryan Newman was at qualifying. Just subscribed to you man keep up the awesome videos!

[@contextwithjohnmalone]

Ryan's career in NASCAR never matched his talent. With track position being so important these days, you would have thought that 51 poles would have gotten you more than only 19 wins. And it's not like he was driving for a start and park team. For a great as a person Ryan is, I would have expected more for him. Notice I didn't say from him. Because I feel that Ryan always gave his all but Penske didn't give him what he needed to Win.

[@syaieya]

As big an impact as his wreck was, I think the record books will be kind enough to keep Newman as the Rocket Man. He managed nearly his whole career with the context of the 2003 wreck and that's all but faded by now.

[@undefined21]

Every week he was a threat for the pole

[@calvinstraveldreams]

3:09 Regarding 2006, the main issue that happened was that the Dodge teams weren’t coordinated properly, with Penske (and Petty Enterprises) trying to run the 2004 Intrepid on the intermediates at the start of 2006 (due to teething troubles with the Dodge Charger in 2005-the Charger was very fast in qualifying but very aero-sensitive in traffic, especially during impound weekends where teams couldn’t change setup between qualifying and race day), while Ganassi and Evernham ran the Charger on all tracks. Crucially, this distracted Penske from trying to make the Charger WORK, even though Evernham and Ganassi had basically cracked it (though even then Ganassi should have kept Mears in the #41 given that he had nearly won at Texas and Homestead in 2005-likely moving Sorenson to the #42) (also Evernham should have just swapped the #9 and #19 crews rather than having the #91 crew become the #19 crew (the #91 should have become the #10 to minimize risk, given that Riggs was an unknown quantity whereas Mayfield was a proven winner)), meaning that by the time Dodge put their foot down and demanded all Dodge teams run the Charger or lose factory support, it was already too late, and Penske were behind on car development (and even a few months can make a huge difference). That Matt Borland left Penske and likely announced his departure mid-season really didn’t help, given that when Newman and Borland worked together, they were usually among the best teams even when acclimatizing to a new car the year prior…As for WHY Penske made this decision, it was likely a knee-jerk reaction to the team’s underperformance on intermediates compared to 2004, as well as ONE promising race with the #12 team running the Intrepid at Homestead in 2005 (which I don’t think Penske would have done if Newman hadn’t crashed in qualifying at Texas two races prior and thus started at the FRONT in that race and finished in the top 10 or even top 5 rather than 25th, thus entering the race at Homestead mathematically IN title contention rather than OUT of it-under those circumstances Penske would have likely run the #2 or #77 car as an Intrepid at Homestead, and kept the use of it as strictly a one-off for testing purposes). Given that in 2006 the only impound races were at short tracks and plate tracks (crucially none at intermediates, which was the Charger’s biggest weakness), and that Kahne in the #9 DOMINATED at intermediates that year, it follows that if Penske hadn’t tried to run the Intrepid at the start of 2006, they could have performed significantly better, with Newman’s 2006 performance likely being at least on par with his 2004-5 performances, and him likely scoring at least almost as many wins as Kahne did in OTL (given that in the 3 previous seasons where Penske fielded Dodges, the #12 team was consistently the fastest Dodge team, even if crashes and mechanical failures hurt their ability to contend) and holding onto Matt Borland as crew chief rather than having Borland leave, likely out of frustration (Busch likely would have still had some issues acclimating to his new team)…

[@calvinstraveldreams]

I can even think of an alternate NASCAR history scenario where Newman doesn't wreck in qualifying in the 2005 fall Texas race (and thus starts at the FRONT of the field), finishes in the top 5 of that race (possibly WINNING or even finishing 2nd to the #41 of Casey Mears due to the race playing out a bit differently as well as it not being an impound race), enters the final race mathematically in contention for the championship (and thus Penske decide to run the 04 Dodge at Homestead with the #2 team of Wallace (or even the #77 of Kvapil), rather than the #12 of Newman), and nearly wins it (finishing 3rd or 4th in points). The following year (2006), Penske decides against running the 04 Dodge and instead works WITH Evernham to figure out the new Dodge, and while at the start of the season the #9 team looks like the strongest Dodge team, the #12 team (instead of underperforming horribly) bounces back with a win at the All-Star race in Charlotte, then goes on to make a major breakthrough in performance over the summer, winning at Indianapolis, Michigan, Auto Club, Dover, and Atlanta (and going from leading only about 150 laps in the first half of the season to OVER 1000 in the 2nd half), making the Chase and nearly winning the championship (along the way setting a 197 mph then-lap record at Texas, and only failing to win the championship due to an engine blowout at Charlotte (after leading over 200 laps and lapping up to the top 10) and then other setbacks at Texas, Phoenix, and Homestead-Miami). Then in 2007 (also with Dodge NOT changing the Gen 4 car's nose due to better performance from the Dodge teams the year prior) the #12 team (still with Matt Borland as the crew chief and with a different main paint scheme compared to OTL (same layout, but in 2006 colors, as well as a different Mobil 1 scheme with the Pegasus)), manages to DOMINATE the 20 Gen 4 races (albeit only being the 5th-7th best team in the 16 races with the CoT), winning 6 Gen 4 races (and a CoT race at Dover, as well as narrowly losing the All-Star Race), leading over 2000 laps (almost all of them in the Gen 4), and qualifying on pole 12 times (including sweeping qualifying at Atlanta, Charlotte, Auto Club, and Michigan, as well as winning poles at Pocono, Kansas, Texas, and Homestead-Miami (basically dominating the downforce tracks) in the Gen 4 (and winning another 2 poles at Dover and Phoenix with the CoT) en route to WINNING THE CHAMPIONSHIP (the team would win the championship again in 2009 after a disappointing 2008 (with Mobil 1 increasing their sponsorship to make up for the loss of Alltel), and then again in 2012, along the way collecting 30+ wins and another 60-70 poles, with Newman retiring with well over 100 poles)...

[@RosieMiddleton-u2m]

His crew chiefs need a bit of love also! Eg Matt Borland.

[@Angelmunoz_19]

If he weren’t that inconsistent, he would’ve been a Jimmie Johnson-caliber driver

[@sergeantmasson3669]

@Angelmunoz_19, Jimmie Johnson often cheated as did Jeff Gordon.

[@tanjirouzumaki144]

Had to be good at qualifying bc he couldnt win a nascar championship

[@EL1TESHARK]

you say that like winning a NASCAR championship is earned... playoffs create mickey mouse champions

[@tanjirouzumaki144]

@@EL1TESHARK what about Larson? Truex? Kyle Busch's 2nd title?

[@sergeantmasson3669]

@tanjirouzumaki144, neither could you.

[@tanjirouzumaki144]

​@@sergeantmasson3669I love how stupid people are to comment this 😂 do I get paid to race cars?