Stewart-Haas Racing’s Ryan Newman has a busy weekend planned. Before he climbs aboard his Haas Automation/U.S.Army Impala SS for the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday, he’ll have already raced twice – in Saturday's NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event at NHMS, as well as a midget race tonight at nearby Lee USA Speedway, a 3/8th-mile oval. His rationale?
“To have fun – that is goal,” Newman explained. “That is what I am here for the whole weekend, but the modifieds…the racecars are such a blast to drive. It seems like they go faster in the corners than they do on the straightaways and that is what a driver likes to feel. It is a great series, has a lot of great drivers in it. We qualified sixth yesterday – just looking forward to it.
“It is a different kind of race than we have here in the Cup car,” Newman added of the modified, “because we can bump draft and draft so much. Here in the Cup cars, you really can’t draft – it is just about passing and it is more of a track-position race. With the modifieds, it seems like you can do a little bit more racing and a little bit more passing just with the combination that they have. I will be running in a midget tonight at Lee Speedway tonight as well…if it doesn’t rain.”