Newman

Ryan Newman's first Winston Cup victory is not long overdue. The 24-year-old rookie just makes it seem that way.

Several drivers who can boast long and fruitful careers had to wait a long time for their first victory. But Newman's Cup career is merely 28-races old. Not a long stint at all.

The reason his winless spell seems so long is a product of how he drives. They should call him the wheel-less wonder because that's what he does -- he drives the wheels off his rig. It's that assertiveness, combined with his maturity and raw skill, that had many of his fellow drivers believing he would own his first winner's trophy by now.

"He's an amazing talent," teammate Rusty Wallace said. "He'll get that first win. I'm surprised they haven't already."

"He's not afraid to try certain things on the track," Dale Jarrett said. "He's aggressive, but that's good. He doesn't drive like a rookie."

Newman began building his reputation as a hard charger from the first time he entered a Winston Cup event -- back in 2001 when he qualified 10th for a race he would have to pull out of because of engine failure.

In his third start, at Lowe's Motor Speedway in 2001, Newman dazzled the Concord, N.C. crowd by snatching the pole. Although he would run just seven races that season -- simply whetting his appetite for this rookie run -- Newman finished the year with two poles and two top-five finishes, including a second-place effort in the first-ever race run at Kansas Speedway.

"Right away, he showed a lot of maturity," Jeff Gordon said. "I think the young guys coming into the sport now, in general, have got a lot more experience in a car than guys did in the past. But Ryan, you could tell, was really good from the first time we were on the track with him."

Newman continued to impress his peers when the 2002 season began. He posted top-10s in four of the season's first five races. He finished 14th in the other.

Heading into the April race at Bristol, Tenn., Newman was second in the standings and poised, it seemed, to make a trip to Victory Lane.

April, however, would be a month that disagreed with the Purdue graduate -- who serves his team both as a racer and an engineer. In his next five races, Newman experienced engine troubles in three events and dropped from second to 18th in the points with 10 races down.

"As a driver, there's nothing you can do about that," Newman said. "But (this team) works very hard to make sure we have a good car to take to every track and that was just frustrating."

Frustrating, too, was the fact that many people were shocked he still didn't have a win, just 10 races into his rookie year.

"I'm not worried about that," he said. "I can't worry about that. When it comes, it comes. We're trying to win every race we enter."

In the past 10 races, Newman has proven that by posting seven top-10s. He has climbed back up to 12th in the standings and has posted three straight fifth-place finishes.

Just another indication, according to fellow drivers, that he's a rookie only in name.

"It's not easy to bounce back after a string of bad races like that," Wallace said. "But those guys don't quit. They've been at it harder than ever, now, if anything."

This weekend, the South Bend, Ind., native returns to his home state for the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Last year, he made sure to include a trip to Indy in his seven-race moonlighting stint as a Cup driver and was content (Newman, you see, rarely gets visibly excited) after posting a fifth-place qualifying effort. He had to leave with a 31st-place finish, however.

This time around, his approach to the race will be the same. The outcome, he hopes, will not.

"We've learned a lot this year even though, really, our philosophy has stayed the same," Newman said. "... There's 42 other cars out there and we want to beat them all -- no matter who they are and who we are."

Rupen Fofaria is a beat writer for the Raleigh News & Observer.