NASCAR: Ryan Newman’s strong 2019 season finally getting appreciation

Ryan Newman’s strong maiden NASCAR Cup Series season driving for Roush Fenway Racing has gone fairly underappreciated until recently.

Roush Fenway Racing’s Ryan Newman has been hovering around the playoff cut line for much of his first NASCAR Cup Series season driving the #6 Ford for the team. As a result, he has been talked about more lately than he had been, as just six races remain on the 2019 regular season schedule.

As it stands, Newman sits in 15th place in the championship standings and in the playoff picture, and he sits 21 points ahead of the playoff cut line with 509 points. In addition, he is arguably the hottest driver in the field.

Because of his recent success, the strong 2019 season that the 41-year-old South Bend, Indiana native has had is finally getting the appreciation it deserves.

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Newman was probably talked about more than any other driver in NBC Sports Network’s live broadcast of the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday, and justifiably so.

After starting at the back of the field, he worked his way up toward the front before an engine issue appeared to hinder his chances of a securing a decent result. But his pit crew worked to fix the error, and he ended up finishing in an opportunistic seventh place. His average finish in the last five races is now 9.00, which is the second best mark in the Cup Series, and his average finish in the last three races is now 7.00, which is the best, and he has achieved many of his results like he achieved his most recent seventh place result — in come from behind fashion.

No driver has averaged more positions advanced per races through the first 20 races of the 36-race season than Newman has. With an average starting position of 19.70 and an average finishing position of 13.50, he has advanced a series-high average of 6.20 positions per race in these 20 races, or a total of 124 positions.

Second place on this list is JTG Daugherty Racing’s Chris Buescher, who has advanced an average of 4.00 positions per race in these 20 races, or a total of 80 positions.

Newman has a chance to qualify for the playoffs based on his point total for the first time since the 2015 season, and he is in the midst of what could easily turn out to be his best season since he finished runner-up to champion Kevin Harvick in the 2014 season.

Newman hasn’t finished lower than 24th place all season long, something that only Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron can also say. The only other driver aside of Newman and Byron who can almost say this is Team Penske’s Joey Logano, whose worst finish of the season is his 25th place finish in the July race at Daytona International Speedway. Logano is the reigning champion who currently sits atop the championship standings.

Additionally, after several years of the #6 Ford effectively getting nowhere, Newman’s strong season has marked a resurgence for Roush Fenway Racing. He has gotten the most out of his car on a weekly basis, and this has put him in a position to be the first driver of the #6 Ford to advance to the playoffs since Mark Martin did so in the 2006 season.

Since then, David Ragan is the only driver of the #6 Ford who has finished in the top 21 in the championship standings. He finished in 13th place in the standings in the 2008 season as the highest finishing non-playoff driver. Trevor Bayne’s 22nd place finishes in the standings in the 2016 and 2017 seasons are the highest results for the driver of the #6 Ford since then.

With Ryan Newman in the midst of one of his best NASCAR Cup Series seasons and one of the best seasons for a Roush Fenway Racing driver in quite some time, will he finish the regular season off strong to secure himself a playoff berth? Whether he does or he doesn’t, he is certainly on everybody’s radar at this point, just as he should be with what he has been able to accomplish so far this season.