Newman maintains 7th position in NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase

September 27, 10:14 PMIndianapolis Motorsports ExaminerJeff Norris

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The U.S. Army team needs to get creative to get ahead.

After starting third and leading laps early in the AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway, Ryan Newman fell back to 10th place at the finish.  His second straight top ten finish maintains Newman's 7th place standing in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, but he now finds himself 110 points behind Mark Martin with eight races left.

This afternoon's top ten finish was Newman's fifth consecutive top ten, but he will be the first to acknowledge that what got him into the Chase will not get him to the front of the Chase.

"We've been consistent, but we need to be consistent with better results," said Newman. "This is a brutally tough competition and we can still do it. We just need to get hotter than we currently are and string together some top fives and get a win or two. It's all doable, but we need to be up there with the 5 (Mark Martin) and the 48 (Jimmie Johnson).  From here on in we need to follow the same kind of mental and emotional toughness that our Army Strong Soldiers possess."

With the competition as intense as it is among the 12 championship contenders, the Stewart-Haas U.S. Army crew is going to have to get out of sequence with their current strategy to get ahead. Next weekend the Chase moves on to the 1.5 mile intermediate track at Kansas.  Since the bulk of the Chase is made up of tracks like these, the race at Kansas will be a good indicator of how the Championship will unfold for the 39 as well as the others.

Click here for our extensive Chase coverage with reports on all 12 drivers in this years Chase!