Ryan Newman had an excellent season in 2011. He won just one race, the fifteenth of has career, but he was consistently around the front of the pack with nine Top 5 and 17 Top 10 finishes.
As is the case with many of the top drivers in NASCAR, Newman started his racing career young, although Newman was even younger than most. His first recorded quarter midget race was at the age of four. He’s not only been successful at every level of racing along the way since then, but he’s started strong each time he moved up a notch. Newman has won Rookie of the Year honors five different time in his career, including edging out another pretty good driver, Jimmie Johnson, for the honor at the Cup level in 2002.
Newman finished that rookie year sixth in series points, and hovered at sixth or seventh place each of the following three seasons. He’s had the peculiar distinction of being better on the qualifying than race day. Newman actually led the Sprint Cup series with the most poles four years in a row from 2002-2005. This qualifying track success is what earned him his nickname, “Rocketman”.
In 2009, Newman joined Stewart-Haas Racing and jumped back into the top 10 after a three-year absence. His strong qualifying continued with his new team. It is now 11 straight seasons in which Newman has captured the pole position at least once.
