TULSA, Okla. — NASCAR Cup Series veteran Ryan Newman will return to the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals in January for the event’s 35th edition as a part of Clauson-Marshall Racing’s five-car squad.
Newman, the 1999 USAC Silver Crown Series champion and a longtime open-wheel competitor prior to his stock car days, made his Chili Bowl debut last year with CMR and reminded those watching that he can still get the job done in a car without fenders as well.
The 43-year-old native of South Bend, Ind., won his E Feature and charged from 16th to seventh in his D Feature, coming a handful of positions shy of transferring again and earning a spot during the MAVTV portion of the Saturday finale.
Next month’s race, set for Jan. 11-16 inside the River Spirit Expo Center in Tulsa, Okla., will be Newman’s second attempt at the Chili Bowl and his first race outside of a stock car since his crash last February on the final lap of the Daytona 500 which left him hospitalized and out of a race car for several months.
Aided by the sports shutdown caused from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Newman returned to the driver’s seat in mid-May at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. He competed in 33 of 36 races and earned two top-10 finishes driving Roush Fenway Racing’s No. 6 Ford Mustang.
In addition to his status as one of a select group of drivers to earn wins in all three of NASCAR’s national touring divisions — the Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series — Newman is also a past ARCA Menards Series winner and NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour winner also.
A deeper dive into Newman’s statistics with the United States Auto Club reveals two USAC national sprint car victories, as well as eight USAC national midget wins, including seven during a 1999 season where he came one position shy of adding a second USAC championship to his racing résumé.
Newman is the third of five drivers confirmed to Clauson-Marshall’s Chili Bowl stable, joining Tyler Courtney and Cole Bodine.
He is tentatively scheduled to race the Wednesday preliminary program, according to the team.
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