MIAMI— Conceivably, Ryan Newman could win the championship without a victory this season, an anomaly in a new championship format where the primary path to the Chase is through winning at least one of the 26 races in the regular season.
But Newman balked at the notion that he is a Cinderella story, even though he has a chance to drive his No. 31 Chevrolet to the first championship for Richard Childress Racing since Dale Earnhardt won his seventh title in 1994.
“I didn’t know Cinderella was a race car driver,” he quipped. “For me, really, it’s just another opportunity — for all four of us — to go into the last round, the Championship Round and really end up…
“What really matters is racing each other, and we’ve had a lot of fun getting to this point, and we need to just keep doing what we’re doing on the 31 side. It’s really a storybook, I guess, in some form or fashion.
“But, hopefully, we can get through Sunday and write our own book.”
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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