Before the green flag dropped for Sunday’s Camping World 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, Ryan Newman had gone 127 races without a win. Newman last win came in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor-Speedway in 2013. In that three and a half year stretch, Newman has switched racing organizations and flirted with a Championship in 2014.
Once the race started, Newman flirted with the top 10 all day long. The first stage of the race was won by Joey Logano, who led a good portion of Sunday’s race. Outside of Logano, second-year driver Chase Elliott led the most laps and won stage two.
Newman Gambles
Kyle Busch, who took over the lead with a little over 100 laps left, looked to be in the driver seat until bad luck caught up to him. With six laps to go, Joey Logano blew a right front tire which brought out the caution. The leaders came down pit road, but Newman decided to gamble. In a green-white-checkered finish, Newman was able to fend off Busch and Kyle Larson to win his first race since 2013.
Newman all but punched his ticket into the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Playoffs which starts in September.
The top 10 finishers were:
1. Ryan Newman
2. Kyle Larson
3. Kyle Busch
4. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
5. Brad Keselowski
6. Kevin Harvick
7. Daniel Suarez
8. Erik Jones
9. Jimmie Johnson
10. Denny Hamlin
The NASCAR schedule continues its West Coast Swing next week with a meeting at Auto Club Speedway.
