Ryan Newman has signed a one-year extension with Stewart-Haas to remain in the No. 39 Chevrolet for another Sprint Cup season.
Newman's position had looked in jeopardy after the U.S. Army announced in July that it would not renew as a primary sponsor of his car for next season. The team took another hit last week when SHR announced that it was losing Office Depot as one of Stewart's primary sponsors, and the team remains committed to running Danica Patrick with backing from GoDaddy.com. However, Stewart has long maintained that SHR intends to field three cars.
Newman, 34, has driven for SHR since Tony Stewart took the reins as an owner-driver in 2009. He has one win thus far this season, at Martinsville, but needs to win again this weekend at Richmond to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
“We're definitely not in an ideal position right now. I know, as a team, we had hoped we would be securely in the top-10 in points when we got to Richmond and not have to rely on our win at Martinsville, but that's not the case,” said Newman. “We've gone into Richmond before not knowing if we were going to make the Chase, and we got in based on our performance that night. We've done it before and we can do it again.”
As for backing, Newman remains convinced that things will come together, although he believes that the salad days of big full-season sponsors are over.
"I feel fairly confident that we'll have good branding on the car," Newman said. "I can't sit here and say who exactly it's going to be and how it's going to play out, or what race is going to be what. But I can tell you this for sure, it's going to be multiple sponsorships. I think the days of having one banner sponsor for an entire season are pretty much over."