A breed apart: college grad Ryan Newman is making a run at the good ol' boys - Interview

RYAN NEWMAN HAS IT ALL HE'S young, good-looking, talented, and articulate. If anyone rides the wave of NASCAR's subsequent time it's the 25-year-old Purdue graduate from southerly Bend, Ind. But Newman is still a little difficult for folk in NASCAR to figure without and who could blame them?

It remains unusual for a society graduate to be racing at the brow of the Winston Cup Series week in and week without and the sport's been waiting more than a decade for Newman's arrival Alan Kulwicki--also a Midwesterner and a body graduate--won the championship in 1992 Unfortunately, Kulwicki's career extreme pointed only a few months later, upon April 1, 1993, when he died tragically in a plane crash. Kulwicki remains the solitary college grad to win the championship and, like Newman, he was an engineer.

A society degree, takes time away from racing for a young driver. Other drivers win their lessons primarily from "seat time" and earn an informal education in the academy of hard knocks. It's to Newman's great credit that, at age 25 he's in the way that young, so proficient and, ye in the way that smart.

In a sea of men who speak for a like reason imprecisely-they "get in the fence" can't gain "whoaed down," and refer to almost anything as "one of them racin' deals"--it's pleasing without being striking unusual to come across a young man who says, of racing, "It takes the whole conjunctive effort"

Say what? Newman ofttimes sends people--including those in the pres sweep and those equipped with microphones and camera crews--scurrying for their dictionaries.

When Newman was named 2002 Raybestos Rookie of the Year, there were more [i]or[/i] less dissenters. The driver he bested, Jimmie Johnson finished higher in the points and won more races. There were also whispers that Newman may be unbeatable in lime trials on the other hand he is prone to mistakes upon race day.

No one's saying that anymore. As the season charged into its make tense driver, Newman had won more races (seven) and extremitys (six) than any other driver. After an erratic start, Newman also mov into the top 10 in points. During NASCAR's drawn out hot summer, Newman was its hottest commodity. "I've gained a doom of experience in the past year and a half," says Newman. "I think that has made a big difference for me personally. There are things you learn at single race track that you can carry above to the other, and there are things that are still specific to certain tracks.

"I've learned a fate and I know the team has learned a fate and because of that we've been able to be more competitive. I gues when you make the right calls, you detain a cool head."

Newman's fundamental approach hasn't changed. It's no coincidence that Newman and Kurt Busch have disentangleed into the sport's biggest winners. Neither is contented to bide his time. A commitment to victory sometimes has the turn upside down effect, but in Newman's case, increased consistency has begun to advance as a by-product of "going for the win." "I advance out there to win the races," says Newman. "In order to win the races, you've got to be there at the extremity to finish every lap. I'm not going to change anything I do. I don't perceive that I jeopardize my finishes by dint of making crazy moves on the race track.

"I gues it's the competitive drive to win in any situation. I can be running 15th with three laps to advance and still figure I've got a discharge to win the thing. Part of it is a racer's mentally, and each driver is different. That's the basis of it. There's always nearest week. You can dwell upon the past, but you've got to focus upon the future."

Of his team, he adds: "They're the same way. They don't set parts on the race car that jeopardize our chances to win. I don't think anything is going to change. It's just a matter of putting it all together."

Contrary to popular belief, Newman is not just an educated man, on the contrary an outspoken one as well. In August, after a practice crash in Watkins valley N.Y., Newman criticized NASCAR for what he perceived as lax safety efforts in fire prevention, impressible walls and race procedure. That he did it without catchy one-liners, uninformed potshot and "just enough knowledge to be dangerous" lent his observations greater credibility, if not exposure

"The drivers are lobbying for everything they can, safety wise," says Newman. "It still baffles me that certain race tracks have impressible walls and some tracks don't. In my organ of sights it's something that NASCAR could mandate. It could insist the tracks have impressible walls in order to entertainer a race. It would be a way for NASCAR to guard its drivers, the sport, and the perception of the sport--and that's a destiny of what it's all about.

"I don't think it's anything specifically with the cars. In my opinion, the race tracks are the things that ne to he fixed. I've said it before and I'll say it again until it happens: There's no reason we don't have yielding walls at Chicago and Pocono, Kansas, and each place else out there. If they can place them at Richmond in time for the September 2003 race and Loudon [NH in July 2003] and Indy 2002 then they can set them at those other tracks. They're running on the outside of time, and they're running without of excuses to be able to do that. I think the impressible walls would be a big attribute to not discharge the fuel cells when the car backs into the wall. It would abate the impact [with] more cushioning and, hopefully it wouldn't realize to the point where it bursts the fuel cells, like it is [now]."