Newman/Borland team; what will become of them?

Working out the scanner issues (Photo credit: purduenila)

As I was listening to the radio communication between Stewart- Haas Racing's Ryan Newman, driver of the #39 car and his Crew Chief, Matt Borland, Sunday at Kansas, I began to wonder about next year. 

Changes always require a period of adjustment, but I can't help but wonder what will become of the long-time relationship between these two. They have built a real team, both on the race track and off. Yet in 2014 Ryan Newman will move to Richard Childress Racing; his crew chief will be Luke Lambert on the #31 Caterpillar/Quicken Loans car. There has been no word on the future of Matt Borland. Will he remain with Stewart-Haas Racing, or follow Newman, as occurred when Newman joined Stewart-Haas.

These two have been through so much together. From 2001 to 2006, the two worked well together at Penske Racing, scoring 12 wins and 37 poles. Following a brief separation, they coalesced once more under the Stewart-Haas banner. Borland was hired in an engineering capacity, but returned as Crew Chief to Ryan Newman's #39 car last year. The result brought an end to Newman's winless streak at New Hampshire and a big win this summer at Indianapolis. Newman has also posted top speeds, giving him the pole twice in recent months.

There is no question that the two, both with engineering backgrounds, and an analytic approach to problem-solving, work well together. They are personal friends. Matt was the best man at Ryan and Krissie Newman's wedding.

Added pressure of the last few races of this season; perhaps the last races the two will work together, are undoubtedly stressful. It was made more so, according to the sense I got from hearing the tone of the voices over the radio at Kansas yesterday. Newman just happened to be the collateral damage when Justin Allgaier lost control of his car, hit the wall and slammed into Newman. The damage was severe, though the team worked hard to get Newman back onto the track to earn one more position before the race ended.

The situation called for some tense moments, as the crew had to practically rebuild the back end of the race car as well as the right side. Borland urged the team to calm down and just do their jobs. But that normally cool demeanor was preceded by a few raised voices and loud directives. It was not a good day for the #39 team. The result was losing five places in the points. If it wasn't for bad luck, Newman would have no luck at all. The team never gave up however. They got Newman fixed up, back on the track in time to make up one more position. Every point counts. He finished the race in 35th position. 

Experiencing racing with Ryan Newman

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeRooting for a particular driver adds a special dimension to race day. In my mind, it is the only way to really enjoy racing these days.

I’m not particularly enamored with racing at Kansas anyway, because frankly, they can get pretty boring, but especially with all of NASCAR’s technical intervention and ethanol-based fuel requirements that I feel have dulled the events.

Rarely is sheer speed the dominant factor in winning races these days. With NASCAR’s latest version of the race cars so closely competitive, racing has become much more strategic. Drivers are almost handicapped as teams have little competitive advantage over one another. Drivers are only one aspect of the overall team, which in addition to the crew, includes the engine, tire, and chassis manufacturers, and others behind the scenes.

But on race day, a slow pit stop can kill all chances for a good finish. Inadequate chassis adjustments can ruin the day. Or tires can be an issue. Sometimes the driver’s ability simply takes a back seat to all other aspects. New ethanol-based fuel also seems to handicap teams since fuel consumption has become a conundrum for crew chiefs. It has added an interesting new dimension to the race, but also has taken away the element of excitement of racing to the finish as cars run out of gas on the last lap. That didn’t happen at Kansas, but it certainly has in recent weeks.

As a Ryan Newman fan, I’ve seen all of these factors come into play. 

Boring or not, I would much prefer to see Newman lead all the laps and cruise to victory, rather watching him struggle with an ill-handling race car though that does make me feel more engaged in the event. I listen to his radio transmission; I feel his frustration. At Kansas, from what was said, it appears that just before the race, the team installed a different shock. It was obviously a bad idea since Newman mentioned that the car he practiced and the car he drove on race day seemed to be two different things. Since there wasn’t e large enough window of time to change the thing during a normal pit stop, they were stuck working with it. Any attempts to improve balance, grip, and speed seemed futile. Knowing that early in the race and knowing it isn’t going to change has to be really frustrating for any driver.

Thanks to Race Buddy, the technological wizardry that allows varied camera views to stream live action on the computer at Nascar.com, I was able to better follow along with what was happening with Newman’s race car. I love Race Buddy, which was first instituted on the TNT coverage, but ESPN picked it up for the Chase races. I was really thrilled when Newman had an in-car camera to follow his every move, but that was a fluke. It hasn’t happened again. It was a thrill to be able to feel as if I was a passenger in his race car. I compensate by watching anyone behind Newman’s car on the track, or on pit road, or on the backstretch, where the cameras are located. I enjoy watching how he handles the traffic, when he passes another car or if there is an incident in front of him. Without this function, and because race commentators rarely talk about his progress on the track, I can follow it myself and really understand how his race goes. Sadly, it hasn’t been going all that well during the last three races.

So with the help of Race Buddy, I didn’t watch the Kansas race, I watched Newman’s race. It became clear early on that winning the race was no longer the goal. Rather Newman could only strive for a decent finish. After a pit stop when he learned that he had to return to pit road because of a loose lug nut, it became clear that even a decent finish would be a challenge. The goal became simply finishing without losing too many points. Newman was two laps down toward the end of the race. There was little time to make up any positions on the track, which translates into points. The focus then became getting one of those laps back. Once he achieved that goal, it was then to be in the position to get the ‘lucky dog,’ the bonus for being the first car of the lap down cars. He did that, so when Jeff Gordon’s car blew up, that caution put Newman back onto the lead lap. That was a pinnacle moment. It is just too bad that it happened so close to the end of the race. Newman had no time to race for a better position in just three laps. All-in-all, his eighteenth place finish was excellent, given how far back he had been. Finishing 18th on the lead lap was his way of salvaging the day. It certainly could have been a lot worse. There is always next week at Charlotte, unfortunately, another mile –and-a-half track. Newman has no wins there, but four top 5’s and seven top 10’s.

Ryan Newman needs a new race car

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.