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Newman paying tribute to veterans at Phoenix 500

The home of the free, because of the brave.”

Ryan Newman’s No. 39 Quicken Loans/U.S. Army Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) carries that poignant phrase this weekend to honor those who have served and protected our nation as we celebrate Veteran’s Day.

Ryan Newman, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet
Ryan Newman, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet

Photo by: Action Sports Photography

Recognizing the service of our country’s military veterans is something that has become especially significant for Newman, who took the wheel of the U.S. Army Chevy upon joining SHR in 2009. This year, Newman also joined forces with Quicken Loans, the nation’s largest online retail mortgage lender and a company committed to helping veterans who have so bravely served our country.

So there’s a natural correlation on display this weekend between Newman, the U.S. Army and Quicken Loans for Sunday’s AdvoCare 500k NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway. A desert camouflage scheme adorns Newman’s No. 39 Quicken Loans/U.S. Army Chevy, and on it are more than 250 black-and-white photographs of active and retired military members who have done business with Quicken Loans.

Quicken Loans is committed to helping our veterans meet their home financing needs. Each month, the Detroit-based company helps thousands of active and retired military members with their mortgages. In fact, over the last two years, the company has helped nearly 50,000 military families with their mortgages. For Quicken Loans, working with veterans is just one way to thank them for their service.

As a U.S. Army-sponsored driver, Newman has come to understand now, more than ever, that he is able to do the job he loves and have the freedoms we all cherish thanks to the men and women who serve and protect our country. As he has visited military bases across the country and has had the privilege of meeting Army Strong Soldiers and other servicemen and women at the racetrack, he makes every effort to shake the hands of Soldiers and thank them for all they have done for our country. After all, the Army is the strength of the Nation, and the Soldiers are the strength of our Army. The Army and NASCAR partnership provides Americans a platform to experience the power, speed, teamwork and technology that drives that strength.

This Veteran’s Day weekend, Newman would like nothing more than to give those who have served and protected our country through the years a ride to remember with a trip to victory lane at the mile oval nestled in the Arizona desert.

There’s been no better track for the South Bend, Ind., native the past two seasons than Phoenix. In his last five starts there, Newman has four top-five finishes – a win (April 2010), a runner-up finish (November 2010) and two fifth-place efforts (February and November 2011). His only finish outside the top-five came earlier this season when Newman was involved in an accident while running fifth. He finished 21st.

Stewart-Haas Racing

While Phoenix has been a strong racetrack for Newman in recent years, it’s also been a special racetrack in his career as it was the site of his Sprint Cup Series debut. On that November weekend in 2000, Newman wasted no time showing the series regulars his penchant for turning a quick lap as he qualified 10th in the No. 02 Penske Racing entry in his maiden effort, which was led by crew chief Matt Borland. Newman went on to be competitive during the race, too, although the final results show a 41st-place finish due to an engine failure.

Then, in 2010, Phoenix was the site of another big first for Newman – his first victory with SHR.

In 20 Sprint Cup starts at Phoenix, Newman has four poles, the April 2010 win, seven top-five finishes and seven top-10s.

This weekend, Newman and Borland will return to the site of their first-ever race together for their third event since being reunited at SHR. The duo hopes to continue building momentum and experience together while also improving upon their impressive 11th- and 12th-place finishes at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, respectively.

As Newman & Company enters the penultimate race of the 2012 Sprint Cup season, there are two primary items on the agenda – to continue to build on the on-track success for the No. 39 team with a trip to victory lane and, most importantly, to honor and thank the millions of veterans whose sacrifice and service allow all of us the freedom to pursue our individual dreams.

RYAN NEWMAN, Driver of the No. 39 Quicken Loans/U.S. Army Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing:

This weekend, your No. 39 Quicken Loans/U.S. Army Chevrolet carries a special paint scheme in celebration of Veteran’s Day. Talk about your car and what it means to you to race in honor of Veteran’s Day. “It’s an awesome paint scheme with the digital desert camo. This racecar is a partnership with Quicken Loans and U.S. Army. Quicken Loans does a lot of work for the veterans of the military. In fact, there’s an entire team dedicated to helping veterans with their needs at Quicken Loans. I’m really proud to have Quicken Loans on the racecar, as well as the company’s support of the U.S. Army Soldiers and all military. Soldiers allow us to do what we love – they give me the chance to race in NASCAR – and for all of us to have the freedom that we have. There are more than 250 photos of Quicken Loans customers who are veterans. It just shows that there is a real correlation between the military and Quicken Loans and the appreciation for our freedom. For me, since my association with the U.S. Army started back in 2009, I think Veteran’s Day has gotten an added meaning. It’s a day to be thankful and to give thanks to the men and women who have done so much to give us the freedoms we have. A lot of us – myself included – take for granted the freedoms we have. Just putting into understanding the sacrifices our Soldiers make and what they’ve done for hundreds of years to make sure we’re able to keep these freedoms and live in the safe country we do. This weekend, I hope everyone takes a moment to thank a Soldier and to just be thankful for the things they have done to give us the free country we have. I can think of no better way to thank the more than 1 million Soldiers I represent and make them proud than by getting my Quicken Loans/U.S. Army Chevy into victory lane.”

Talk about racing at Phoenix. “Phoenix has always ranked up near the top of my list of favorite racetracks. It’s really one of my favorite racetracks because the design of the racetrack makes it fun and challenging to drive. It’s a fun racetrack. It’s unique and totally different on both ends of the racetrack, so it’s almost like two racetracks in one. You have to adapt as a driver, you have to adapt with the racecar and your crew chief has to adapt to the track. Then you have to, as a driver, mix it together. So it’s definitely a driver’s racetrack. It’s different from one end to the other. And, therefore, the crew chief can only get one end perfect, it seems, and the other one the driver has to adapt to. It’s not a compromise if your crew chief does a good job setting up the racecar because you can do things to try to manipulate those opposite ends of the racetrack. But, when your car is not working, it’s up to the driver to make up what you can of what’s left and that, I think, separates the men from the boys at Phoenix. The driver really has to drive and hustle the car a little bit more and a little bit differently and still be smooth. It’s those aspects that make the track a lot of fun to me.

Your first Sprint Cup start with Matt Borland as your crew chief came at Phoenix in November 2000, when you were running a partial schedule. What do you remember about that race? “We qualified 10th and we ended up having a windshield tear-off cover up the grill and melt the engine down. Then we found out after the race that my brake pedal wasn’t returning all the way, so it was cooking my brakes. We had a whole bunch of car problems but it was a good experience. To qualify 10th in my first Cup start was awesome. Then I backed it up the next spring by winning the pole in my third Cup race, so we proved we were no fluke.”

You’ve had two weekends with Borland back as your crew chief. Assess what you’ve done and talk about whether you can recapture the success you had in the past. “I hope we can recreate that success – at least that’s our goal. Matt and I have always had a great relationship on the racetrack and away from the racetrack. We’ve remained friends even when he changed jobs and teams. We’re back together again. We look forward to the opportunity and we have a couple more races to get going some more than what we already have. We rebounded pretty well at Martinsville. We rebounded from a loose wheel and I actually had a left-front tire going down in the middle of the race at Texas, and Matt made some good calls that allowed us to put ourselves in contention to get a top-10. To come back and finish 12th from all we had to do there was a really impressive comeback. We’re working on things and we’re getting to where we need to be. Being back together is new, and it’s kind of new to him, too – being back on the pit box. He’s got experience with the racecar but he doesn’t necessarily have all the experience with the racecars at the racetrack right now. The past few years, he’s been our firefighter. He’s been out there putting the fires out and troubleshooting, so to speak, from a technical standpoint. So he understands about the cars, but he’s still playing catch-up with the cars at the racetrack and I fully expected that. But I’m proud of what we’ve done to this point.”

Stewart-Haas Racing

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