Meet Ryan Newman

Ryan Newman is not your ordinary NASCAR driver, who has an immense talent behind the wheel, but he also has an in-depth understanding of what a car is designed and built to do on the racetrack. It is that combination that has made Newman one of the most successful and respected figures in modern motorsports. Newman has never taken for granted his success. Instead his focus has been on how to improve his stats with each racing season and in turn achieving his ultimate goal, a Sprint Cup Championship.

Newman made his racing debut in 1993 in the United Midget Auto Racing Association and the All-American Midget Series, winning both Rookie of the Year and the championship. His 100 feature wins and two titles have him in the Quarter Midget Hall of Fame. Moving to USAC in 1995 running the C.E. Lewis #39 Drinan Chassis powered Brayton Motor, he was ROTY again in both the Midget Series and the Silver Crown in 1996. In 1999, he was the first driver to win in all three divisions while being the Silver Bullet Series champion in the #14 Beast Chassis powered Chevy.

Newman began working for legendary racing icon Roger Penske in 2000, winning 3 of the five ARCA RE/MAX Series races he entered, and making his Winston Cup debut at Phoenix International Raceway. In 2001, Newman continued in both ARCA and NASCAR, while attending Purdue. Newman ran 15 Busch Series races that season, winning poles in his 2nd and 3rd career starts and scoring his first career win at Michigan International Speedway in just his 9th career start. He also had a series-high 6 poles. Around this time he would meet racing legend Buddy Baker, who would eventually become his mentor on superspeedways. On July 15, 2008, Newman announced that he was leaving Penske at the end of the season, and a month later, it was confirmed he was joining newly-formed Stewart Haas Racing in 2009, in the number 39 (his number during his midget-driving years) Chevy Impala. U.S. Army signed on for a three-year sponsorship deal, though only for 23 races of the 2009 season. Despite a slow start, Newman has given his career a boost since the move. Including a pole, 5 top fives, and 12 top tens, and an average finish of 14.0, his best since his 8 win season in 2003.

Ryan's Family

Ryan Newman made his Nationwide Series debut on February 12, 2001 at Rockingham) in the Alltel 200. He started second and finished ninth; it was his first of fifteen appearances in the 2001 season, where he finished with one win and eight top-10 finishes. He regularly averages five series races per season. Newman made his Truck Series debut on October 25, 2008 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, starting 10th in the 33 truck field driving Kevin Harvick's #2 Truck and passed his teammate Ron Hornaday with less than five laps to go to pick up his first truck series win in his first start making him the first driver to get their first Truck win at Atlanta and becoming the 4th driver to win in their first Truck race and joining the list of drivers who have won in all three of NASCAR's top series.

Newman and his wife, Krissie, operate the Ryan Newman Foundation, which performs a three-fold mission: to educate and encourage people to spay/neuter their pets and to adopt dogs and cats from animal shelters; to educate children and adults about the importance of conservation so the beauty of the great outdoors can be appreciated by future generations; and to provide college scholarship funding through the Rich Vogler Scholarship program, of which Newman himself was a recipient, to students interested in auto racing careers.