RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 QUICKEN LOANS CHEVROLET SS, WAS THE GUEST ON THIS WEEK’S NASCAR WEEKLY TELECONFERENCE.
 
BELOW IS THE TRANSCRIPT FROM TODAY’S INTERVIEW:  
 
THE MODERATOR:  Ryan, we thank you for joining us today and we wish you the best of luck at Michigan.
 
Welcome to today’s NASCAR conference.  We are joined by Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Quicken Loans Chevrolet for Stewart‑Haas Racing. Newman has two wins at Michigan International Speedway, and has two Top‑5 and seven Top‑10 finishes so far in 2013.
 
Ryan, you have two wins at Michigan and three of the last four races you finished inside the Top‑10.  You’re coming off a race where you matched your best finish of 2013 which was a fifth place at Pocono.
 
How are you going to capitalize on the momentum heading into this weekend as we get closer to the Chase?
 
RYAN NEWMAN:  Well, I’m not 100 percent sure, but I know it’s important that we do.  We have ‑‑ aside from Dover, we have had some good runs in the last four races.  And you know, carrying some of that momentum, as well as obviously Tony had a good weekend in Dover, but just keeping the ball rolling.
 
I think that there’s some things that we learned at our Pocono test that we can absolutely carry over from the Pocono race into Indianapolis going back to Pocono, and as well, I think at places like Michigan that are smooth and have similar asphalt and are really fast, as well.
 
So hopefully the things that we’ve learned will help carry us for the most part through some of those things.  It’s all about having a fast race car, especially when you go into a big weekend like we have with the Quicken Loan’s 400 being the sponsor of the race, as well as my race car.
 
So pressure from the outside, but from my side, just doing my job and staying focused and hitting my marks.
Q.  With Father’s Day coming up, can you tell me what your dad has meant to you at the race track and away from the race track?
RYAN NEWMAN:  We don’t have that much time, but it’s special.  Whether it’s Father’s Day or not, it’s special to have that relationship with my dad, and at the same time, to have that relationship with my daughters, and I guess maybe be able to share it to them a little bit more especially on Father’s Day.
 
I think the most memorable, and I think there’s two memorable Father’s Days, in my mind, with respect to my father, and that was the midget race I won in Salem, Indiana, and the Cup race I won Father’s Day weekend in Michigan.  I told him, I said, you know, before I got in the race car, I said: This is the only thing I’m going to try to get you is this victory and there’s no guarantee to and, but know that I’m trying and that’s enough for my dad, because he’s a racer.
 
To have a person who is not just my father, but my friend and somebody who has taught me a large percentage of everything that I’ve known, and at the same time, given me the attitude and the personality that I have, that, whether you like it or not, it’s who I am, and we all go on.
 
So I look forward to Father’s Day weekend now for two reasons, because I still try to win each and every race for my dad, especially Father’s Day weekend, but obviously for my two girls, as well.
Q.  Curious how you think the new car will perform on a road course like Sonoma.
RYAN NEWMAN:  I think it’s safe to say it’s going to be faster.  I don’t know that that means we are going to have more passing or less passing or what the exact situation is going to be.  But faster usually leads to more braking, and more braking usually leads to more heat, and I think it’s definitely going to be a situation where you want to have track position no different than it ever has been at Sonoma.
 
We had a one‑day test, us and Danica actually went to VIR to basically knock the rust off the drivers, try a couple things for the crew chiefs and get the cars ready to make sure everything was good.
 
I feel like on our side, we’ll be competitive and we’ll see what happens.  But the Gen‑6 car has proven to be a faster race car, pretty much every racetrack we’ve been.  Sometimes the weather conditions are not conducive for it, but we are breaking a lot of track records this year.
Q.  What do you think, it’s the 25th anniversary of road course racing and Cup racing at Sonoma; what are your earliest memories of the race in Sonoma each year, watching it on TV, or what are some of your earliest memories of the place?
RYAN NEWMAN:  I guess as an avid NASCAR fan watching something that’s so totally different from a racing standpoint than the ovals.
 
I think it’s just, you know, when you’re a fan looking at it, it’s different than being a race car driver looking at it because a driver, he just drives a race car but I fan, you see the oval side of it and then you go to the road courses and you see ‑‑ like it’s a totally different kind of ‑‑ what are these cars doing, these are for road race cars, not NASCAR stock cars.  It’s just a different perspective of when I was younger than what I have now, is what I’m trying to say.
Q.  Is there a potential of a lot more drivers winning this race these days than there was maybe ten, 15 years ago?
RYAN NEWMAN:  Maybe ten, 15 years ago, yes.  Ten years ago, I think you had a few good drivers, meaning one hand, and then a couple road course ringers that came in and now I think you’ve got, maybe, ten or 15 drivers that are capable of winning.  But I think that goes without saying in all the other racing, as well, not just road courses.
Q.  You mentioned Danica earlier.  What have you seen from her as far as her progression?
RYAN NEWMAN:  As you say, progression or aggression?
Q.  Progression.
RYAN NEWMAN:  I think she’s got great feedback.  I think she understands a little bit more each and every race, each and every opportunity she has to feel the race cars and give the feedback and build that library of feels to be able to relate to how she needs to say it to her crew chief.
 
But I know in our debrief, the one thing that when we talked about this past weekend, is that she just has not really had good track position. Whether it’s a less‑than‑average qualifying run or being stuck in the points, having to start in the back with rain, she’s just ‑‑ she’s kind of fighting a battle of track position right now.  I think if she could get up front and feel her race car in cleaner air, it would make a world of difference to her confidence right now.
Q.  You talked about pressure on the outside with Quicken Loans being the title sponsor of the race, curious if you feel this race is any more important for you in terms of trying to keep them as a sponsor of yours and the future, no matter where you end up racing?
RYAN NEWMAN:  Every race is important with respect to that.  For me, I look at it from this perspective:  If I go out there and do my job as a driver, then I’m protecting my relationship with my sponsor and with my team and everybody else, and the second part of that is, you would think that it would be self‑centered but it’s really not.  If you take care of the one, it takes care of everything else.
 
There’s no pressure from the outside, I think people view it as pressure, but from my perspective it’s an opportunity to do something even greater, to win your own race as a title sponsor and a car sponsor.  I’ve had the opportunity to do it before and haven’t, so I look forward to another opportunity.
Q.  Does it matter, I assume that there’s going to be several executives from Quicken Loans at that race.  Does it matter to perform well at a race that they are physically at, rather than watching maybe on television?
RYAN NEWMAN:  I think it makes a difference to them personally.  You know, results