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I don’t mean that in a mean-spirited way. He’s just different. Where many of us have trouble finishing what we start, Newman can’t seem to start what he finishes. He’s hell on wheels in the last half of the season, but by then, he’s too far behind to contend for the championship.

Newman, the 2002 Rookie of the Year, is the best qualifier in Winston Cup racing, bar none. And so far this season, he has four victories, more than any other driver.

But Newman started the season upside down–literally. A wreck in the Daytona 500 sent him barrel-rolling down the front stretch, and his No. 12 Dodge came to rest on its roof in the infield grass.

Suddenly, he was at the bottom of the barrel–last in the Daytona 500 and the points standings.

With five finishes of 38th or worse in the first 11 races, Newman kept slipping further behind points leader Matt Kenseth. Though Newman won March 30 at Texas and cracked the top 10, he fell out until winning July 27 at Pocono–13 races later. With two wins in the last four races, Newman has climbed to fourth in TSN’s Power Poll, which puts a greater premium on race victories, but he’s still ninth in the Winston Cup standings, 654 points behind Kenseth.

We’ve seen this before. After the Pepsi 400 in July 2002 at Daytona, Newman accumulated 2,725 points the rest of the season–more than any other driver–and moved from 16th to sixth in the final standings. So why can’t a team that blows away the competition in the summer and fall get off the starting line in the winter and spring?

It’s not for lack of brainpower or horsepower. Newman, 25, is the only driver in the garage who has a degree in vehicle structural engineering. It’s not just a piece of paper. Newman is an intellectual, and there are times when he’ll let you know it.

In January, he greeted a large group of writers on the Winston Cup media tour with a question: “How many of you know the difference between an engine and a motor?” Four hands went up. “Thought so” he said. In case you’re wondering, Newman says an engine runs on fuel and must go through a combustion cycle.

His crew chief, Matt Borland, is an egghead, too. He also holds an engineering degree. But they couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again after the wreck at Daytona, and the widely varied results flowed from there. An example: For 13 straight races, stretching from Las Vegas through Michigan, Newman didn’t start worse than eighth but managed only four top five finishes.

Newman is the only Dodge driver to win this year, so it’s safe to say his car owner, Penske Racing South, has a better handle on the car than the other Dodge teams in the garage. But that hasn’t prevented the oddness of 2002 from carrying over.

Newman says he learned “two big things” at Purdue that aren’t necessarily linked to engineering: time management and problem solving. So why didn’t he share what he learned with the team earlier in the season?

“We struggled at the start of the season with a couple of crashes here and there–a blown tire, a failed rear gear at Richmond while we were leading” Newman says. “Part of that is racing luck. Part of it is lack of preparation.

“The bottom line is you don’t change your luck. You create your luck. People use luck as an excuse or reason sometimes.”

Though Newman says there’s not just one reason behind his mixed results, he is convinced the engine-building part of the switch from Ford to Dodge was the most difficult task.

Newman has praised the power and reliability that engine builder Scott Carriher has provided, and the team lost just one engine during a race, June 15 at Michigan. Newman then posted top fives, including two wins, in four of the next five races and landed in the top 10. A nice recovery, but again, it took him too long. Newman won’t win a championship until driver, crew chief and crew find a consistent rhythm for most of the 36 races.

With the trend in NASCAR favoring teams that make aggressive and analytical calls from the pits, there’s no doubt the Newman-Borland brain trust will win races. They proved that as a rookie team and are proving it again.

But to win championships in November, they need a better game plan for February.

TSN’s POWER POLL

Rank  Driver              TSN pts.  Winston Cup pts.

1.   Matt Kenseth         2,144       3,152 (1)
2.   Dale Earnhardt Jr.   1,878       2,866 (2)
3.   Jeff Gordon          1,789       2,834 (3)
4.   Ryan Newman          1,772       2,498 (9)
5.   Bobby Labonte        1,659       2,642 (6)
6.   Kurt Busch           1,579       2,569 (8)
7.   Jimmie Johnson       1,572       2,656 (4)
8.   Kevin Harvick        1,496       2,623 (7)
9.   Michael Waltrip      1,459       2,653 (5)
10.   Tony Stewart         1,379       2,420 (13)

Through race No. 21, at Indianapolis. For a complete TSN
Power Poll rundown and an explanation of the points breakdown,
go to www.sportingnews.com/nascar/poll.