Ryan Newman returned to Victory Lane on Saturday at the Rougemont Rumble at Orange County Speedway but with a new belt to boot.
Newman has endured a slower start to the season compared to 2024 with three finishes outside of the top-five but finally broke through on a night where Michael Christopher nearly won in the Gary Putnam Racing No. 77 before an incident with Paulie Hartwig III with eight laps to go.
Nemwan posted the fifth fastest time but started on pole due to the redraw and ran inside the top-3 all race, working through cautions and the stage breaks. The 2008 Daytona 500 winner needed to hold off Sammy Rameau, Christopher and Hartwig.
“I didn’t want to have to swallow my pride getting beat by an eighth grader there,” Newman joked. “Paulie did an excellent job on the restart there, and I can’t thank these guys enough. Randy Renfrow and everyone over at Coulter Motorsports have worked hard, We started the season off, we made a lot of changes, a lot of tests, and everybody’s chipped in.”
Newman didn’t know what could come out of that second-to-last restart when Hartwig would slide up into Christopher, but he put it on the line.
“I put it on the beach! When Paulie slid the 77 there, I just cut it left, I didn’t know if anybody was there, it didnt really matter. I was gonna try to make a run, and we got to the line before the caution, which was a game changer, then we got a good restart after that.”
It would make a great ending to his day after his daughter finishes 4th in the Carolina Crate Modified Series supporting SMART this weekend.
Hartwig would notch his second top 3 finish of the year after what was an up-and-down race for him.
“It was just a tough race, falling all the way back to 11th, and I kind of burned it up there in the beginning of the race trying to stay humble, but Blake got me back calmed down.”
Hartwig’s car would come to life after taking his tire in the pits, and he felt that Newman got the best of him on the final restart.
“He schooled me on that restart, We had something when we took our tire there.”
When would Hartig have done differently?
“I don’t want to ruin my reputation by pushing someone up the track and putting them into the wall, I don’t race like that. We could’ve been like that but I know I have a career ahead of me, we’re getting one of these smarties trophies this year.”
Michael Christopher Jr, a former NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Winner at Jennerstown Speedway and 4 time winner at Stafford Motor Speedway, impressed in his SMART Modified debut for Gary Putnam Racing, finishing third and looking like the car to beat through a majority of the race, though he felt he was struggling towards the end. “I mean, I was definitely holding on there at the end, we fired off tight after the tire change there.” Christopher would lead the field to green on the second-to-last restart, yet would lose the lead off of turn four after contact with Hartwig. He harbors no bad feelings towards Paulie for the contact.”I could hold him off, but they must’ve got a run behind me and just sank it in, and that’s how you gotta race here. It is what it is, I really wish we could’ve won this for Gary and his whole crew, they worked really hard and I’ve gotta give it up to them.” Christopher would also state that he would love to come back to race SMART if the opportunity arised with Gary. “It’s good to be a part of it if Gary wants to do that in the future, but this is fun, he gave me the call Wednesday and I said, ‘Ill show up here”
SMART Rumble at Rougemont
Orange County Speedway
April 5 2025
1.Ryan Newman
2. Paulie Hartwig III
3. Mike Christopher Jr.
4. Joey Coulter
5. Luke Baldwin
6. Jonathan Cash
7. Jake Crum
8. Bryce Bailey
9. Joey Braun
10. Sam Rameau
11. Carson Loftin
12. Jimmy Wallace
13. Jack Baldwin
14. Frank Fleming
15. Daniel Yates
16. Jonathan Kievman
17. Slate Myers
18. Brandon Ward
19. Carter McMurray
20. John Michael-Shenette
21. Burt Myers
