Ryan Newman has been having a good time. Since stepping away from full-time NASCAR Cup Series competition following the 2021 season, the 18-time Cup Series winner’s racing slate has been an enjoyable kind of busy.
He’s competed in all of the Superstar Racing Experience events over the past two summers — winning this year’s title. He’s also taken on multiple events with the southeastern-based SMART Modified Tour and NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, and this season has driven in a handful of Cup Series races for Rick Ware Racing.
However, his main commitment is to his two daughters. His oldest, Brooklyn, has a burgeoning outlaw kart racing career, and his youngest, Ashlyn, is involved in dance. Newman makes great strides to be flexible and schedule races that don’t conflict with his daughters’ activities.
“My goal moving forward is to continue to have fun, and that’s no matter what I do,” Newman told SPEED SPORT. “My primary focus is developing my daughters’ careers, not just my oldest daughter in racing, but my youngest daughter and what she wants to do. Those are my priorities.
“I’m not a full-time Cup racer guy; I can promise you that. Part of me thinks that I can and want to, but the reality is, I know that my family is more important,” Newman continued. “When it comes to the opportunities with SRX being six Thursdays in a row, sign me up. When you can be a champion and make a few bucks, that’s exactly what I want to do. To compete against the best and be a part of the best, and have a shot of being a champion in that, if we could do that two or three times in different cars, yes, yes and yes.”
Newman, 45, has little left to prove. His racing résumé includes wins in the 2008 Daytona 500 and 2013 Brickyard 400, victories across all three NASCAR national series, 51 Cup Series poles and the 1999 USAC Silver Crown championship. He drove for Team Penske, Stewart-Haas Racing, Richard Childress Racing and Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing during his nearly two-decade Cup Series career.
But racers race. The level of competition in SRX, along with the favorable schedule covering pavement and dirt short tracks, were part of the allure for Newman. He won this year’s second race at Stafford (Conn.) Motor Speedway en route to the series championship.
“It’s an honor to be invited to be a part of that group,” Newman said. “The opportunity to race the full season is really special, because not everybody gets that opportunity. … Those guys are no slouches and it’s fun to race against them and compete for a championship with the majority of them.”
Newman is also fond of the business model and level of behind-the-scenes commitment within SRX. He can continue a personal relationship with South Point Hotel and Casino on his car and also promote Ford Motor Co. Meanwhile, companies such as title sponsor Camping World, tire supplier Goodyear, Bass Pro Shops, Caymus Vineyards and others also show up on the race vehicles in addition to being series sponsors, allowing for a variety of opportunities.
The SRX staff’s task of simply getting the cars to the track impresses Newman.
“It’s pretty amazing if you think about a team of guys that are racing 12 cars full-time for six weeks in a row,” Newman said. “That’s a crazy task for Hendrick Motorsports, let alone a bunch of guys that are putting together cars for six races in a row in the middle of the summer.”
His fascination with the SRX staff’s ability to put cars on track is consistent with his background in engineering. The South Bend, Ind., native graduated from Purdue University with an engineering degree, which he often used during his career.
“I always said my engineering taught me two things,” Newman said. “When I went to college it taught me time management and problem solving. Problem solving being the engineering side of it, time management being working with a team to get things done before your competitors do. That’s how you win.”
His engineering knowledge has also helped make race cars safer over the years, with some of his ideas allowing drivers to escape serious injury. He was the beneficiary on several occasions, most notably when the “Newman Bar” around the driver’s forehead likely saved his life in a terrifying crash coming to the checkered flag of the 2020 Daytona 500. He suggested the idea after turning over at Talladega.
“Unfortunately, I was the crash-test dummy in most of those situations, that’s why I got the credit,” Newman said. “I didn’t design the things; I wasn’t a part of at least 90 percent of that process. No doubt I’ve had input on the safety side of it from head-and-neck restraints, safety devices and things like that. But ultimately there’s been a lot more, more important people than me doing all those things and they deserve the credit.
“I think that it’s good to be a part of the development, the continued safety and progress when it comes to any kind of racing. I definitely want to be a part of that because I feel like I can be with my engineering degree and my experience.”