Newman Outlasts Field Again

Ryan Newman’s latest NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory has opponents wondering how his Dodge can go so far on a tank of gas.

Those opponents who were talking, that is, after Newman’s display of fuel conservation at Kansas Speedway on Sunday.

Newman elected not to take part in a series of pit stops with 65 laps to go, then held off a furious challenge from Bill Elliott to win the Banquet 400. It was his series-leading eighth victory of the year, and the third in his last five races.

After the race, the second-year driver -- who last pitted 79 laps from the end -- and crew chief Matt Borland had to fend off allegations of rule breaking.

“I can tell you firsthand ... We’re not cheating. We don’t cheat,” Newman said. “That’s basically it. They can think what they want. They can say what they want.”

Elliott, who led 115 of 267 laps, didn’t show up in the media center after the race. Instead, he issued a statement through Dodge: “We had a good car, but it was just one of them days.”

But Jeremy Mayfield, who finished third as Dodges took the top three spots, had plenty to say -- even though he stayed out of the pits along with Newman.

“I’m not an engineer,” Mayfield said. “But I know that if you’ve got 22 gallons of fuel in your car, and everybody’s got the same-length fuel line and everybody’s got so much horsepower, it takes so much fuel to make that.”

Newman holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue.

Elliott, third after a restart with 14 laps to go on the 1 1/2-mile tri-oval, was held up momentarily by Mike Skinner’s lapped car. He passed Mayfield with 11 laps to go but could not manage a serious challenge to Newman.

“You can opt for fuel mileage or you can opt for power,” said Elliott’s crew chief, Mike Ford. “It’s very difficult to get both.”

Ford called allegations of wrongdoing by Newman’s team “purely speculation.”

“I never worked on that car,” he said. “I wouldn’t know.”

Points leader Matt Kenseth’s struggles continued with his second wreck of the weekend and his second frustrating finish in as many weeks.

Kenseth, starting 32nd in a backup Ford after he crashed in practice Friday, crashed in the backstretch while trying to avoid Michael Waltrip’s Chevrolet after Waltrip spun out in the 68th lap.

Kenseth returned to the race in the 114th lap -- 46 laps behind. He finished 36th and saw his lead over Kevin Harvick shrink to 259 points -- down from 354 points last week and 436 two weeks ago.

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Tony Schumacher set a national elapsed-time record en route to his fourth Top Fuel victory of the season during the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals at Reading, Pa.

Schumacher set the record in his U.S. Army dragster at 4.441 seconds during his quarterfinal round victory over Doug Herbert. He then covered the quarter-mile in 4.584 at 315.56 mph to outrun Jim Head, who fell just short with his pass of 4.603 at 322.65. It was Schumacher’s 11th career victory.

Tim Wilkerson had a run of 4.869 at 317.94 in his Pontiac Firebird to earn his third career Funny Car victory and second of the season to easily defeat Cruz Pedregon, who lost traction immediately and had a run of 11.909 at 81.05

Warren Johnson recorded his 92nd Pro Stock victory in his Pontiac Grand Am when his final round opponent, Troy Coughlin, left the starting line early and fouled out.

Michael Phillips scored his first Pro Stock Bike victory in eight years and the second of his career when he rode his Suzuki to the finish line in 7.133 at 189.07, holding off three-time series champion Angelle Savoie, who had a run of 7.165 at 188.07.