Newman Breaks Award’s Mold

Ryan Newman, driver of Roger Penske’s Winston Cup Dodge, was chosen as motor racing’s driver of the year Saturday in the most wide-open voting since the award was inaugurated in 1967.

Nine drivers representing six sanctioning bodies received votes from the 18-member selection committee, made up of print and broadcast media, plus a fan poll, which was given the weight of one member’s vote.

Newman, 26, won eight races and 11 poles in NASCAR’s Winston Cup series, but finished only sixth in the final standings because he failed to finish six races. Matt Kenseth, who took the championship with 311 more points than Newman but won only one race, was one of those who received at least one vote.

It was the first time since Bill Elliott won driver-of-the-year honors in 1985, beating Winston Cup champion Darrell Waltrip, that the winner was not the champion of his series. That year, Elliott won 11 races and the first Winston Million bonus for winning three of four selected races.

Others selected on at least one ballot this time were Paul Tracy of CART, Steve Kinser of the World of Outlaws, Scott Dixon and Sam Hornish of the Indy Racing League, Kenny Bernstein and Greg Anderson of the National Hot Rod Assn. and J.J. Yeley of the U.S. Auto Club.

The season started on a frustrating note for Newman when the South Bend, Ind., native flipped his No. 12 Alltel Dodge and finished 43rd and last in the Daytona 500. Newman was not injured and won for the first time at Texas Motor Speedway in the year’s seventh race. Then came a disheartening stretch during which he failed to finish in four consecutive races.

After finishing 42nd at California Speedway because of a crash involving Steve Park on the first lap, Newman was mired in 27th place in the standings.

“Let’s just say the first half of the season wasn’t anything I’d like to do over,” Newman said after the season ended. “Daytona was pretty bad and we destroyed our speedway car there that we needed to use at Talladega six weeks later. A new car had to be built, so that was tough on the guys at the shop because building a car isn’t a fun or easy job.”

The second half was a different story.

After the July race at Daytona, Newman won six of the next 13 races, at Chicago, Pocono, Pa.; Brooklyn, Mich; Richmond, Va.; Dover, Del.; and Kansas City, Kan. He’d also won at Dover in June.

“We had a lot of great runs during the summer months and, really, that’s where we turned everything around,” he said. “We ran well at almost every track we went to. Even Daytona in July, we finished 22nd, but we finished and took the car home in one piece for a change. We managed to accomplish a lot this year and won poles and races doing it.

“We fought back from 27th in points to finish sixth, so I guess that was a great race in itself all year.”

NASCAR drivers have dominated in the 36 years the award has been given and have won eight of the last 10 years.

Previous NASCAR winners: Lee Roy Yarbrough, 1969; Richard Petty, 1971; Bobby Allison, 1972 and ‘83; David Pearson, 1973 and ‘76; Cale Yarborough, 1977; Darrell Waltrip, 1979, 1981 and ‘82; Bill Elliott, 1985 and ‘88; Dale Earnhardt, 1994; Jeff Gordon, 1995, ‘97, ’98 and 2001; Dale Jarrett, 1999, and Bobby Labonte, 2000.