FanHouse RyanNewman

For two mornings this week, Ryan Newman struggled just to lift his head off the pillow to get out of bed, his neck muscles still sore from a frightening airborne smash-and-roll wreck at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway last Sunday.

Even as he suited up Friday to practice for Race 8 of NASCAR's 10-race Chase for the Championship at Texas Motor Speedway, he was still aching from the crash, and bristling that it even happened.

Newman had been outspoken about NASCAR's immediate need to keep the race cars from launching into the air during accidents -- only to take that scary ride himself Sunday afternoon.

Before Ryan Newman's horrific Talladega flip-roll-smash-and-slide on Sunday, there was Carl Edwards' car somersaulting into the front stretch fencing.

The late Dale Earnhardt had one of his most frightening accidents at Talladega Superspeedway, barrel-rolling through the tri-oval. Before that it was Ricky Craven and Bill Elliott on E-ticket rides. In 1993, driver Jimmy Horton's car flipped over the Turn 1 wall and landed outside the track.

Rusty Wallace's Talladega crash footage -- pick a year -- used to be standard play before any NASCAR restrictor plate race.

The point is -- while there is a justifiable outcry at the scary accident involving Newman this weekend -- spectacular, highlight-reel wrecks here aren't news. They are old news.

Depending on your perspective, Ryan Newman either had the best seat in the house or the worst during NASCAR's last visit to the mighty and unpredictable Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

Carl Edwards, Sprint Cup rookie Brad Keselowski and Newman were 100 yards in front of the checkered flag, set to decide the winner amongst themselves, when Keselowski and Edwards collided directly in front of Newman. Edwards' Ford went airborne, bounced off the hood and windshield of Newman's Chevy, then flew into the fencing along the front stretch grandstands in a horrific-looking accident that led the country's sports highlight reels.

If you haven't seen the video, you will. It'll be played over and over and over all weekend as the Sprint Cup Series makes its Chase for the Championship visit to Talladega this week.

In this week's edition of Inside the Chase, FanHouse's Holly Cain visits with Ryan Newman, the driver of the U.S. Army-sponsored No. 39 Chevrolet, to talk Talladega safety improvements, a rough qualifying lap at California Speedway, reading to school kids, a vacation to Jackson Hole and the benefits of earning his college degree.

Ryan Newman is currently ranked ninth among the 12 drivers vying for the Sprint Cup title as the series stops at Auto Club Speedway of Southern California for the fourth of the 10-race Chase for the Championship.

Newman was a vocal proponent of having NASCAR make safety modifications in light of a horrific airborne crash at the spring Talladega 500-miler. In the midst of a multi-car accident at the front of the field, Newman's car launched Carl Edwards' car into the front stretch catchfence. Debris injured seven people in the grandstands.

As NASCAR's Chase for the Championship enters week 3 of its 10-week playoff run, FanHouse delivers its third installment of Inside the Chase with Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet.

Newman sits seventh in the championship -- 110 points behind leader Mark Martin -- as the Sprint Cup Series visits the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway for Sunday's Kansas 400. Newman won this race in 2003 and has three top-5 finishes in eight starts.

Sponsorship obligations, press tours, cross-country travel, high speeds and risky maneuvers -- those are just the requirements of Ryan Newman's day job.

It was not the scars and burns, nor all the prosthetic limbs, or even the constant hum of machines dripping life into some patients that most struck Ryan Newman during a visit Thursday with injured soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

It was a far more simple concept that impacted the 2008 Daytona 500 winner most.

"The age of the people we visited is mind-boggling,'' Newman said. "The average age of the soldier is way younger than you'd imagine.''

Eighteen, 19, 20 years old. ... ages when Newman, 31, in a pre-Sept. 11 era was frantically working toward an engineering degree at Purdue University during the week, then barnstorming across the Midwest during the weekend racing sprint cars in preparation for what's been a distinguished career in NASCAR.

NASCAR fans, join us here at FanHouse.com as we chat with Ryan Newman on Wednesday, Sept. 9 at 4:15PM ET.

Ryan will be joining us from Eldora Raceway, site of Tony Stewart's rescheduled (rained out in June) Gillette Young Guns Prelude to the Dream race featuring nearly two dozen NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers, as well as racers from other series including the NHRA and World of Outlaws.

If you can't be there, catch "The Prelude" on HBO pay-per-view at 7PM ET.

If I had said this six months ago, you would have insisted that I'd lost my last marble. But now the notion doesn't seem so crazy, does it? I pick Tony Stewart to win the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.

That's right - my money's on "Smoke" and I'm feeling pretty confident given the way he's behaving lately. Taking the point lead at Dover, and winning for the first time as a car owner a week later at Pocono, sealed the deal for me, but let me point out that six months ago I was in the minority who believed in the notion that Stewart-Haas Racing would actually succeed.

Where: Lowe's Motor Speedway
Time: Sunday 5:45 p.m./EDT
TV/Radio: FOX Sports, PRN Radio
Twitter: In-race updates at FanHouseRacing
Forecast: 64 degrees, 80% chance of rain
Distance: 400 laps (600 miles)
Pole Winner: Ryan Newman
2008 Winner: Kasey Kahne
First-time NASCAR winners have been commonplace at Lowe's Motor Speedway for quite a few years now. Jeff Gordon got his first there as did Jamie McMurray, Matt Kenseth and Casey Mears.

Sunday night, though, the favorites look to be of the veteran variety.