NEWS ARTICLE
COCA-COLA 600 RACE REPORT
CHARLOTTE, NC. (May 28, 2012) -- Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet, led the Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) contingent at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway by finishing 14th in the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Sunday night. It was Newman's sixth top-15 result of 2012 and his 11th top-15 in 23 career Sprint Cup starts at the 1.5-mile oval.
Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet for SHR, finished 25th after a pit road collision dropped him off the lead lap.
SHR driver Danica Patrick finished 30th in just her third career Sprint Cup race. Patrick drives the No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet for Tommy Baldwin Racing via a collaborative agreement with SHR. Her next race as part of her 10-race Sprint Cup schedule for 2012 is the Irwin Tools Night Race Aug. 25 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.
Kasey Kahne won the Coca-Cola 600 to score his 13th career Sprint Cup victory, his first of the season and his fourth at Charlotte, and in doing so, set a record pace of 3 hours, 51 minutes and 14 seconds.
Denny Hamlin finished 4.295 second behind Kahne in the runner-up spot, while Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top-five. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth comprised the remainder of the top-10.
There were five caution periods for 23 laps, with 10 drivers failing to finish the 400-lap race.
With round 12 of 36 complete, Stewart continues to lead the SHR duo in the championship point standings. He fell two spots to ninth and now has 388 points, 65 back of series leader Biffle and 16 points ahead of 10th-place Carl Edwards. Newman picked up one position to climb to 13th and now has 337 points, which puts him 116 points behind Biffle and in a tie with Paul Menard. Newman gets the nod over Menard by virtue of having a win this season while Menard is winless thus far.
The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the FedEx 400 on Sunday, June 3 at Dover (Del.) International Speedway. The race starts at 1 p.m. EDT, with live coverage provided by FOX beginning with its pre-race show at 12:30 p.m.
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