Ryan Newman

They would have gotten Tony Stewart, but nobody wanted to see another fat guy in an Optimus Prime costume.

Ryan Newman is an American race-car driver born December 8, 1977 in Indiana. He is the 2002 NASCAR Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year and the 2008 Daytona 500 winner. He was formerly the driver of the Stewart/Haas Racing #39 Chevy Impala in NASCAR's Sprint Cup series. On October 17, 2009, he drove a car with a special Optimus Prime-themed paint scheme to promote the Revenge of the Fallen DVD release, finishing in eleventh place. Hendrick Motorsports's Jeff Gordon ran with an opposing Megatron scheme, finishing in fourth.

Notes

• Newman was the only active driver in NASCAR with a college degree at the time he was active, a B.S. in vehicle structural engineering from Purdue University.

See also

• Kyle Busch

External links

• ESPN's NASCAR/Revenge of the Fallen promotional site.
• The Ryan Newman Foundation's official site.
• Stewart/Haas Racing's official site