The Inside Line: Newman a big surprise in the Chase

Oct 27, 2014 - 7:50 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - Ryan Newman is making a Cinderella run in this year's Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, hoping to become one of the four drivers contending for the title in the Nov. 16 season finale at Homestead.

When NASCAR revised the playoff format for its premier series prior to the start of this season, it put more emphasis on winning races than scoring points. Any driver who won a points-paying race during the regular season was virtually guaranteed of making the Chase.

With the playoffs now including elimination rounds, any championship-eligible driver who wins a race will automatically advance into the next round.

Newman, who's in his first season as driver of the No. 31 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, has yet to win a race this year, but he has been consistent throughout the season, particularly in the second half.

He accumulated enough points during the 26-race regular season to earn the last seed in the 16-driver Chase field.

After finishing 15th at Chicagoland, the first race in the Chase, and then 18th at New Hampshire, Newman managed to advance from the Challenger Round into the 12-driver Contender Round with an eighth-place run at Dover. He then moved on to the eight-driver Eliminator Round with finishes of sixth (Kansas), seventh (Charlotte) and fifth (Talladega).

Newman concluded the Contender Round third in the point standings, just four points behind then-leader Joey Logano.

Newman's third-place run on Sunday at Martinsville matched his best finish of the season. He bounced back from a pit-road speeding penalty and then survived a wild ending to the race. The last caution set up a five-lap shootout to the finish. Dale Earnhardt Jr. passed Tony Stewart for the lead with four laps left and then held it for his first Martinsville win.

"I put us a bit behind there with that pit-road penalty, which is something rare for me to do, but we managed to race our way out of that and get back to the top 15 and top 10 and then put us in a good place for this finish," Newman said. "Those last five laps were pretty intense, and I'm glad we came out of it how we did. It could have been big there, and I was expecting another caution."

Jeff Gordon's second-place finish gave him the points lead, while Newman is just three points behind him. Since Earnhardt won Martinsville but had been eliminated from the Chase following the Contender Round, at least two of the final four positions for the championship at Homestead will be decided by points. Texas (on Sunday) and Phoenix (Nov. 9) are the remaining races in the Eliminator Round.

"We came here (to Martinsville) to do what we needed to do," Newman said. "We're going to go to Texas to do what we need to do. That's a lot easier said than done. To me, it's just another race. It's an entirely different race than what we had at Martinsville. Phoenix will be the same."

Newman's last win in the Sprint Cup Series occurred in July 2013 at Indianapolis (49 races ago). He drove for Stewart-Haas Racing at the time. Last year, Newman got into the playoffs after point penalties were levied against Michael Waltrip Racing and Martin Truex Jr. following MWR's cheating scandal in the Chase-cutoff race at Richmond. Truex's loss of points removed him from the playoff field. Newman finished the season 11th in championship standings.

With the new Chase format, Newman now has a great shot at winning his first title in the series. Following each elimination round, the point totals for each championship-eligible driver is reset (3,000 for Contender, 4,000 for Eliminator and 5,000 for championship). The highest finisher among the final four in the Homestead race will win the title. Bonus points for laps led will not apply at Homestead.

Newman's best points finish in his Sprint Cup career is sixth, which happened three times, most recently in 2005 when he drove for Roger Penske's team.

If Newman were to advance into the final four at Homestead and then be the highest finisher of the four there, but without winning any one of the three remaining races, he would become the first champion in the 66-year history of the Cup Series to not score a victory during his title season.

"It's played to our advantage the entire time as far as not having a win, not having bonus points," Newman said. "Even if you're 8 of 12 or 16, you're still getting caught up, making free points that they're giving you to be tied to the next bracket.

"It's been to our advantage the whole entire time. But that doesn't mean it's going to be from the drop of the green in Texas or from the drop of the green in Homestead. It has played to our advantage mathematically, no doubt. We were the 16th seed coming in without a win. We've not won yet. We were tied for the lead in the points with four races to go. So mathematically, it has played to my advantage, as others, but probably mine mostly."

Newman has 17 career victories in the series, including one at Texas (March 2003) and Phoenix (April 2010). His best finish at Homestead is third, which came in 2012.