An Interview With Ryan Newman

SCR: Does your engineering degree and background give you an advantage over other drivers, given what this sport has become and how technical and advanced it's become over the last decade?

Newman: I would like to say so, yeah. I know there are a lot of smart people out there, but I know from having an engineering degree that I can say I'm one of them.

SCR: You mentioned NASCAR's embarrassing moments and the problems of the last few races. Looking at the situation with cautions and the confusion they've caused, there seems to be a simple solution-just revert back to the last completed lap. Yes or no?

Newman: That's the way we all grew up racing. But that's not the way they've always done it. We have the technology to separate where all the cars are when the yellow flag comes out. It took the IRL a few months after Helio Castrone- ves won the [Indianapolis] 500 to figure out who exactly won, even though he had already won it. So we're not the only ones having that problem. But there's definitely a lot of different ways of doing things than the way it's been done in the past.

SCR: What is your opinion of drivers in the back who are barely competitive but who make races because of the rules? Let's call them field fillers, for lack of a better term.

Newman: I don't think there is such a thing as a field filler. I think people come to compete. When they are in the form or position to compete, they will. If not, they'll play their best hand and fold if they have to. The bottom line is that no matter what series you're in, there's always some form of what they call field fillers. But they're competitors in the same right, and they come for a specific reason. Whether it's to win or to compete, they're there for the competition. That doesn't make them field fillers.

SCR: You look back to 25 years ago with Petty and Pearson in their heyday-Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, too-and half the field could be labeled field fillers as far as that goes.

Newman: Yeah, that's it. Somebody said field filler one time, and too many people were listening. I don't think there is such a thing.

SCR: We've talked about this a little, but what are the biggest challenges facing this sport today?

Newman: I think a couple of things. Maintaining consistency, in either judgment calls or in the rules themselves, and making sure it remains true to its form. Bill France Sr.'s famous comment [when NASCAR was being formed] about no telling how far this sport can go if it's handled properly will be true forever. Because the sport has grown so much, if it isn't handled properly, it won't be here. The biggest thing is to make sure that it stays true to itself and that it's handled properly, and managed properly, and marketed properly, and remains a clean business.

SCR: From the inside, how are things different in the sport from what you would have expected as an observer 7, 8, 10 years ago?

Newman: Just the politics of the sport, and I think everybody would say that. Dealing with people is one of the hardest things anybody can do in life. It's easy to go sit on a boat and catch a fish. It's easy to go slide down a hill when it's raining. It's easy to do a lot of things. But dealing with people and personalities is one of the hardest things. For me, that's probably been the most eye-catching thing.

SCR: Is that the part you are least comfortable with? Dealing with people?

Newman: Not the least comfortable with, but some people have a knack for it and some people don't. It's not a part I particularly enjoy.

SCR: This part [with the media]?

Newman: Not just this, but dealing with people in general, whether it's a fan, or an official, or crewmember, or whatever. There's their opinion, and ego, and everything else that goes along with it.

SCR: There was a story claiming that you disputed the banking at Bristol, saying it was closer to 26 degrees and not 36 degrees.

Newman: It is 26.