Darlington, S.C. – Victory was most certainly in sight for Ryan Newman until strategy snatched it away at Darlington Raceway on Saturday night.
When a late caution forced teams to gamble on pit strategy, Newman made the wrong decision and stayed out on the track. The contenders behind him all stopped for new tires, and used the fresh rubber to blow past Newman on the restart.
The result was Greg Biffle winning his third race of the season while Newman faded to a fifth-place finish.
“That’s the way it works sometimes,” Newman said. “Sometimes you’re the dealer, and sometimes you’re not. I can’t say it was a bad call, by any means. We had a car that should have definitely won this race, but didn’t.”
Newman had seized the lead from Biffle and was cruising to his first win of the season. No one was even close to catching him. But with less than 5 laps to go, Mark Martin lost control of his car to bring out a caution.
Biffle knew stopping for four fresh tires was his only option.
He had lost a race the same way earlier this season, when he chose not to change the rubber on his Ford at Bristol and blew any chance at a victory.
“There was no question we were coming for tires,” Biffle said. “We were coming no matter what.”
Jeff Gordon, who was riding in third at the time of the caution and ended up finishing second, sympathized with Newman’s predicament.
“The lead in a situation like that is the toughest place to be,” Gordon said. “I’m sure he didn’t think that many guys were going to come in and take tires.”
It was the fifth victory for Biffle in 10 races this season.
