Newman outduels Stewart for first Chase win

“When Tony got by me, I thought I was done. But he never walked away,” Newman said after hanging tough and passing Stewart for the victory just two laps from the end Sunday in the Sylvania 300.

Newman, who barely squeezed into the 10-man Chase for the championship, picked a good race to regain his winning touch, getting off to a fast start in the 10-race playoff.

“We raced clean, we raced hard, we had fun,” said the winner, whose last victory came last Sept. 26 in Dover, Del.

Stewart, who started from the pole, dominated through much of the race, leading 173 of the 300 laps on the 1.058-mile oval. But Newman won the late battle, passing Stewart on lap 299 and holding the top spot by two car-lengths.

“Tony wasn’t happy with the balance of his car at the end,” said Newman, who led 66 laps. “His car was going away at the right time for me. It was going away faster than mine. But that’s the best racing I’ve seen at this track.”

Following the final pit stops by the leaders, Newman found himself just ahead of Stewart when the green flag waved with 16 laps to go after the 10th caution.

Stewart, on the way to his 13th consecutive finish of eighth or better, was relentless in trying to retake the lead, pulling up to Newman’s Penske Racing South Dodge time after time before finally slipping below him on the backstretch on lap 292.

But Newman wouldn’t give in. He stayed with Stewart, got beneath the Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet on lap 299 and pulled ahead.

Chase contenders Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle finished third and fourth, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is out of the Chase but running his first race with Tony Eury Jr. back as his crew chief.

“Tony and I are a good combination,” Earnhardt said. “And we’re going to try to work toward next year. These next nine races are real important and we’re going to try to build on that.”

Newman was ecstatic after his first win in 35 races, especially getting it in the biggest race so far this season.

“That was a long time without a Cup win,” said Newman, who drove part-time in the Busch Series this season and got a big boost by winning three straight races.

“It felt so good to be able to win in the Busch Series and win three races over there. That builds confidence in a driver,” he said.

As for his battle with Stewart, Newman said, “Getting back by him was a lot easier than him getting by me because I was giving him everything I could. I just did exactly the same thing to him that he did to me.”

Stewart bumped Earnhardt late in the race as Earnhardt dove toward the pit lane. The collision caused some damage to the left front of Stewart’s car, which caused a tire rub for a number of laps.

“We had some damage on the left front and that cost us at the end, but it was tight racing there at the end,” Stewart said. “We did everything we could do today. I think we ran about as good a race as we could run here and just came up a little short.”

“But that was some kind of short-track racing right there. That’s the way the Chase should start just like that. Ryan did an awesome job. We just couldn’t hold him off at the end.”

It was Newman’s 12th career win and, more important, moved him from 10th in the standings — a position he barely grabbed with a 12th-place finish last week in Richmond — to a tie for third with teammate Rusty Wallace, both of them trailing Stewart by 40 points and Biffle by 20.

Wallace finished sixth, with Chase contenders Mark Martin sixth, Jeremy Mayfield 16th, Carl Edwards 19th and defending champion Kurt Busch, involved in a crash on the second lap, 35th.

Busch, who started his charge toward his title with a victory here last year, was sent spinning into the wall in a collision with Scott Riggs.

The furious champion drove his battered, smoking car to the garage, then strode to Riggs’ pits, where he climbed up the pit box and spoke for a few moments to Riggs’ crew, chief Rodney Childers.

Busch then stalked back to the garage, where his team worked furiously to get the car repaired. Busch, who began the day in fifth place, just 20 points behind Stewart, finally returned to the race on lap 68, 66 laps behind the leaders. With the help of attrition, Busch worked his way up from 43rd to 35th, a difference of 24 points. He fell to 10th place in the standings, 142 points behind Stewart.

Tempers flared in the crash-filled race and Kasey Kahne, Michael Waltrip and Robby Gordon were all called into the NASCAR hauler following the race.

Kahne drove into Kyle Busch on purpose after Busch put him in the wall, and Gordon tried to back into Waltrip after they collided, sending Gordon into the wall. Gordon missed, but stood on the track waiting for Waltrip and threw his helmet at Waltrip’s car.

“I think you’re going to see some pretty stiff penalties coming out of this, probably by Tuesday at the earliest,” NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said.