Image via WikipediaWhat's up with Ryan Newman? Prior to Sunday's race at Kansas Motor Speedway, I read a story about Ryan Newman driving a "used car." It was a quirky little story about the chassis for Newman's Haas Automation Chevy being a vintage 2009. Running at Kansas would be its 15th start.
The story by Dustin Long, indicated that races are being won by drivers driving new or nearly new cars.
Newman's Crew Chief Tony Gibson explained away retiring this "used car," chassis # 39-531, according to the story by saying the car had good karma.
I didn't hear that from Ryan Newman Sunday as he tried to command the thing around the race track without brushing the wall too many times. Newman was not happy and the car was the reason.
Just days prior to Long's story, The Ledger.com ran a story entitled, "NASCAR: Stewart's Step Up Requires Cold Cash." The title speaks for itself.
While I don't want to jump to conclusions, those two stories seem to fit together like tires on a race track. I'd hate to think that Newman is simply a victim of frugality. He had been on such a hot streak, but during the last several races, complaints about his race car have accelerated faster than a double-file restart with three laps to go. This situation coupled with the news that General Motors is planning to cut back on support for Hendrick and Stewart-Haas Racing really causes me concern.
The economy is a problem; we all feel it. I'll keep going to Burger King, and eating Tornados, so let's take Ryan Newman new car shopping.
