Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Aspen Dental Chevrolet SS, led Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) in time trials Friday night at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway by qualifying 11th for Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race. Newman’s time of 114.716 seconds at 141.218 mph, which included three timed laps around the 1.5-mile oval with a four-tire pit stop, placed him 11th among the 19 drivers already eligible for the 29th running of the non-points event.
“That was a pretty cool qualifying deal,” said Newman, who won the 2002 All-Star Race as a Sprint Cup rookie. “Coming to pit road like that with no speed limit, entering and exiting at speed, I don’t know that I’ve ever done that. Kudos to whoever came up with that idea. We obviously weren’t as fast as we would’ve liked. The guys made some adjustments to the Aspen Dental Chevrolet prior to qualifying, and while the changes were good, I think we needed just a little more. We’ll start a little farther back than I would like to, but we’ll see what we can do once the race starts.”








