Ryan Newman and the Grainger Racing Team Make It Out of the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval with an 11th-Place Finish

“From the get-go we battled the same thing that we experienced at the Roval test session – loose and tight conditions through certain corners. We ended up with damage to the Grainger/American Red Cross Camaro ZL1 a few laps into the first practice and didn’t get to run many laps, so qualifying was tough. We lined up 28th. Our goal was to steer clear of trouble once the race started. If I tried to get more out of the Grainger/American Red Cross Camaro ZL1, it wouldn’t respond. It actually slowed down. It also felt like I had no left spring to get through the chicane. Despite the challenges, we kept our nose clean and raced as high as 11th before we got spun out on lap 74. Needless to say I’m not happy with what happened. We had to switch gears and conserve fuel in hopes of regaining some of the track position we lost in case guys could not make it to the end on fuel. Then with six laps to go, it was chaos and we somehow made it out. We finished 11th and that’s respectable for us. I’m happy for all the guys on this No. 31 team. We didn’t give up.”

– Ryan Newman