Story By: BRANDON LEE / ROUSH FENWAY RACING – AVONDALE, AZ – In a mostly incident-free Championship race, Ryan Newman drove his Guaranteed Rate Ford to a 24th-place finish in the final race of the 2020 NASCAR season.
The race marked the conclusion of Newman’s 19th season in the series.
Newman rolled off 19th for the 312-lap race, one that featured a competition caution at lap 30. Newman – a 2017 winner at the 1-mile track – ran 23rd at the time of the first yellow, just one of four cautions on the day.
After the first stop of the day, Newman restarted 29th and ultimately finished 25th in the opening 75-lap stage. As the team continued work on the handling of his Ford Mustang, green flag pit stops spaced the field out and he would fall one lap down to the leaders. A caution at lap 160 sent the field to pit road and he took the wave around to get back on the lead lap. A green-flag run to the end of the segment saw Newman finish the stage 25th.
The final stage brought more green flag action as Newman steadily worked his way through traffic to finish 24th in the season finale.
