Ryan Newman looking to make a run at Charlotte; will Kasey Kahne repeat?

Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 car for Stewart-Haas Racing, is gearing up for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (6:00 p.m. ET on FOX). Newman is coming off a 13th-place finish at last week’s All-Star Race in Charlotte and currently 17th in the Sprint Cup standings. He’s 147 points behind Sprint Cup leader Jimmie Johnson and has recorded one top-five, five top-10 and three DNFs in 11 races this season.

Oral-B, which is sponsoring this post, has partnered with Newman and will be at the race giving away product samples and hosting contests and giveaways. Oral-B builds approximately one million manual toothbrushes in the U.S. every day, so the company believes Memorial Day Weekend is a great time to remind you to celebrate U.S.-built products that are engineered to perform.

Newman has had some success at Charlotte during his career. He had three top-five finishes and five top-10 finishes at Charlotte during his time with Penske Racing. Since switching to Stewart-Haas Racing, Newman has three top-10 finishes at Charlotte, per Racing Reference. Newman has averaged a 6.9th starting position and 20.1 finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway (not including the All-Star Race).

So who else should we expect to contend for the checkered flag on Sunday?

Kasey Kahne figures to be top competition at the Coca-Cola 600. Kahne finished fourth in the All-Star Race last weekend, won the Coca-Cola 600 last year, and has recorded a top-10 finish in his last five races at Charlotte. Sprint Cup leader Jimmie Johnson will also likely be a favorite to win. He won the All-Star Race for the second year in a row and has been particularly dominant at intermediate tracks over the past year. Denny Hamlin has been a model of consistency at Charlotte posting top-10s in his last four races there, while leading 73 laps. Greg Biffle should be considered a threat this weekend; he has had two top-five finishes at Charlotte and led 393 laps there in the four non-All-Star races there the last two years.

In addition to appearing at Charlotte for Memorial Day weekend, Oral-B will also be at Daytona for July 4th weekend, Atlanta for Labor Day weekend, and Phoenix for Veterans Day weekend, so look out for more posts from us ahead of each of those races.

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