Purdue grad Ryan Newman wins Brickyard 400
By CLIFF BRUNT
ISL Editor
INDIANAPOLIS — So, that engineering degree paid off after all for Ryan Newman.
The 2001 Purdue graduate won the Brickyard 400 on Sunday, then found himself reminiscing about his parents telling him to go to school while his peers were racing. Turns out, that knowledge he gained in West Lafayette has proven helpful.
“Purdue, for me it was an opportunity,” he said. My parents literally pushed me out of the door and said, “Go to college.” I didn’t want to. I will say it in front of everybody, I was tired of school, I wanted to go racing. I was winning races, having fun. They said, No, go get your engineering degree.”
Newman remembers asking Jeff Gordon if he should go to school.
“Asked him if he had the opportunity to go to college and get an engineering degree, would he do it if he had the chance to do it all over again. He said absolutely.”
His background helps him communicate with his crew chief, Matt Borland.
“We’ve got a common language now because of my engineering degree,” Newman said. “He happened to go to GMI (General Motors Institute). I went to Purdue. They still talk about physics and equations and things like that. Math is a big part of what we do, a big part of what makes the racecar go faster.”
Newman didn’t graduate with honors, but he learned enough to apply himself in the racing world.
“I graduated with a 2.01,” he said, joking. “I needed a 2.0 to graduate. Fortunately on that diploma, it doesn’t have a GPA. I got that. At the same time I listened really good in school, most kids that got 4.0s had a hard time getting jobs because they were too good. I wanted to be the average guy.”
