www.kansascity.com/sports/story/494359.htmlNewman gives Penske his first Daytona 500 victoryBy JIM PEDLEY
The Kansas City Star
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. | Roger Penske can now call Kinko’s. His resume is ready for the update he has been hoping to add for 35 years.
Thanks to a victory by driver Ryan Newman early Sunday evening, Penske can add winning car owner of the Daytona 500 to his sizable list of accomplishments.
“This has got to go to the top of the chart,” Penske said after the race.
Penske is the unchallenged pooh-bah of open-wheel racing in North America. His drivers have won 14 Indianapolis 500s. They have won 11 championships in the CART and Indy Racing League series.
In addition to that, there were championships in sports cars and in the United States Auto Club series.
But NASCAR — and especially the Daytona 500 — has been tough to crack for Penske. Oh, his cars have won 60 Sprint Cup races, and Rusty Wallace finished second in the series standings for Penske in 1993. But there have been zero championships and an equal number of February victories at Daytona.
Penske never really showed a lot of emotion about not winning a 500 or a NASCAR championship. But after his record of futility had been blown to dust Sunday by Newman, it became obvious just how badly Penske wanted to add Daytona to his victory list.
“I can say I’ve been here almost, probably, 30 years trying to get to victory circle,” Penske said later Sunday evening. “To achieve this with this competition, with Ryan — the student, really, of the sport — and Roy (McCauley, Newman’s crew chief), and the whole team, it has just been unbelievable.”
As good as getting the victory was for Penske, the method by which he got it was even better.
The ultimate team-concept owner won the 2008 Daytona 500 with ultimate team-concept execution.
When the field took the white flag at the start of the final lap, two-time Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart had the lead. Behind him was Newman, and behind Newman was Penske Racing teammate Kurt Busch.
Coming out of turn two, Newman went up to the wall on Stewart’s high side. Busch followed, and working perfectly in tandem, they both blew past Stewart. As Busch continued to push Newman through turn three and four and then up the front straight, the victory was assured.
Newman called the assist he got from his teammate, “the push from heaven.”
“Kurt Busch,” Newman said. “Without a doubt, he could have easily gone three wide and split us through the center and made one heck of a mess up there. But he chose to be a teammate. That’s the most honorable thing he could do.”
Penske said, “I thank Kurt, too. He pushed us to victory. To me, that’s important.”
Stewart was also trying to end years of frustration at Daytona. His resume still lacks a victory in NASCAR’s big race.
Asked how he felt after giving up the lead at Daytona two turns from the checkered flag, Stewart said, “Disappointed, obviously. It would be a lie to come in and say I was happy about going from first to third on the last lap of the 500.”
Stewart, too, was in a position to get help from a teammate on the final laps of the race because Kyle Busch was behind Stewart coming out of a restart with three laps to go. But the two Joe Gibbs Racing drivers never hooked up, and the Penske drivers flew past.
“Those guys had such a head of steam” on the restart, said Busch, who led a race-high 86 laps. “They got ahead of me on the restart. They lagged back and then got a big push. In the NASCAR rulebook that’s not right, but they let it go.”
In the days leading up to the 500, not a whole lot of attention was paid to the Penske teams and drivers. Most story lines were about the Hendrick Motorsports team, the power of the Toyotas and the Joe Gibbs Racing team.
Afterward, there was no moaning about a lack of respect. There was only class and grace by drivers who work for a man who defines those characteristics in racing.
“I don’t know if we’re in the same caliber as the Gibbs and Hendrick cars are right now,” Busch said. “But it’s definitely great to finish one-two and be leading the points right now.”