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Auto Racing | Rain gives Busch victory on pit road
You win some, you lose some and sometimes it rains. That all added up to an improbable finish and a victory for Kurt Busch in Sunday's Lenox...
Ryan Newman Finishes 6th In The Sprint All-Star Race

Ryan Newman finished 6th in tonights Sprint All-Star Race at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway. He qualified 8th for the nights race.

Kasey Kahne won the 1 million dollars finishing first after taking NO tires before the last segment. Kasey was the driver that the Fan’s voted in (including Jeni). Kasey is only 1 of three drivers ever to advance from the Showdown to the main event and win. Newman was the second ever. Kahne was the first ever Fan Vote to win the All-Star race.

Ryan’s teammate Sam Hornish finished 2nd in the Showdown earning his spot in the All-Star race. Same ran a great 40 lap (2 20 lap segments) in the showdown in order to get in the All-Star race. Hornish finished 7th in tonights event. Sam Hornish JR ran great in tonights race.

With Sam Hornish JR getting into the race, Rodger Penske had all 3 of his drivers in the race. Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman. Penske on the other hand was at Indianapolis.

Segment 1
Ryan Newman quickly worked his way up to the 4th position. He reported that his car was a “tick tight” which is the best he has reported a car being all year. Newman along with most other cars was running great on the top line. Dale Earnhardt JR challenged Newman a couple times on the bottom and could not happen.

Towards the end of the segment, Newman reported that his breaks did not feel right.

Newman finished segment 1 in 4th position. His teammate Kurt Busch finished 3rd.

They stop in the pits, take 2 tires, a round up in the track bar and 1 down in the left rear.

Segment 2
Newman’s crew gained him 2 spots and he restarted in 2nd on the outside of Kyle Busch. Newman maintained 2nd spot with what appeared to be a bad restart.

Newman fell to 3rd after Carl Edwards powered around him on the bottom 2 laps into the segment. Newman said he needs more are in the tires.

Newman fell another position to 4th when Dale Earnhardt JR took him on the low side. JR had 4 tires, Newman had 2 tires. Newman is not happy with the changes to his car.

Newman said “we used to have motors when we came to this place” after JR went around him.

Newman and Matt Kenseth had a great battle for multiple laps for the 4th position. Newman was running high and Matt running low. Kenseth was running low. Kenseth eventually overtook Newman.

With 11 to go Carl Edwards became the second leader of the race. It appeared that Kyle Busch was loosing a cylinder.

Newman gains a position as he goes by Kyle Busch who is falling farther and farther back.

Newman finishes the segment in 4th.

McCauley came over the radio and told Ryan and the team that they were going to do a normal pit stop, then do adjustment. I assume that means tires and fuel, then start making adjustments.

During this 10 minute intermission between the 2nd and 3rd segments, teams can make any adjustments that they want.

HALFTIME
During the half time Newman’s crew put a little tape on the nose to help with down force, 2 round down on the right side track bar, one round of bite in, full rubber out of the left rear, down 1.5 lbs on the left rear, 1 lbs down on the left front and 2 lbs up on the right side. All of this in hopes of correcting his “balance”.

He was complaining about the brakes. He stated that he would have to pump the brakes 3 times on the straight aways before he got to the corners so that he could have brakes.

After listening to all the radio talk, I hope they did not over think this.

After his car was looked over and worked on, Kyle Busch’s team announced the car was done, their night was done.

Segment 3
Newman restarted segment 3 in 4th.

Newman held off Mark Martin for several laps. Newman once again running high and Mark could not make it happen on the bottom.

Newman is running just as fast as the other 2 cars in front of him. Greg Biffle was leading towards the end of the segment and is making times off the chart.

Ryan was reporting that he is still a little to tight in the center and it still feels like he is low on air pressure.

On pits they plan on going up 2 round on the right side.

The plan was to take 4 tires, but they were going to watch Kenseth and see how many tires he took. Kenseth took 2 so did they. 3 pounds in the right front and 2 pounds in the right rear.

Segment 4
Newman restart in 6th because a couple cars took no tires. One of those cars was the race winner Kasey Kahne.

Newman gained a position in the 4th segment but fell back to 6th.

As with almost all races this year, Newman was complaining about his motor.

At the end of the race McCauley came over the radio and said “learned something for next weekend about tires.”

Newman’s response was “and motor”.

McCauley once again made reference to the tires and Ryan came back and said “tires are easy fix, the motor we’re struggling with”.