Ryan Newman: the speedway builder's grandson

Born 1977 — racing

Born here, tied to the quarter-mile by blood: Ryan Newman was born in South Bend on 8 December 1977. The tie to the home track is his own, in his own words: "My grandfather … helped build South Bend Motor Speedway," he told NBC Sports in 2017 — one of the fourteen builders of 1946 was his grandfather — and the track's photographer Jay Freet counts Newman among the drivers who raced at the speedway. His own racing began one town west: his first quarter-midget race came at New Carlisle, in this county, in 1982, at four and a half years old. He won more than a hundred quarter-midget races and stands in the Quarter Midget Hall of Fame; he graduated from South Bend's LaSalle High School in 1996 and took an engineering degree at Purdue.

The national record: Newman went to USAC in 1995 and was Rookie of the Year in both its Midget and Silver Crown divisions in 1996. In 1999 he became the first driver in USAC history to win races in a midget, a sprint car, and a Silver Crown car in the same year. His stock-car career at the top level is a matter of NASCAR's record, and its peak in that record is the 2008 Daytona 500, which he won. The boy who started in quarter midgets in St. Joseph County became, by the sanctioning bodies' own records, one of the most accomplished drivers American racing produced in his generation — and he remains the only one of them who can claim a grandfather among the men who built his hometown track.

Sources:

1. Ryan Newman, quoted by NBC Sports, 17 August 2017 — "My grandfather … helped build South Bend Motor Speedway."
2. Stan Kalwasinski, SPEED SPORT, 27 May 2024 — Jay Freet's account of Newman racing at South Bend Motor Speedway.
3. EBSCO Research Starters, Ryan Newman biography, and the standard biographical record — born 8 December 1977, South Bend; the first quarter-midget race at New Carlisle in 1982; the hundred-plus wins and Quarter Midget Hall of Fame; LaSalle High School, class of 1996; the Purdue engineering degree; USAC Rookie of the Year in Midgets and Silver Crown, 1996; the 1999 midget–sprint–Silver Crown sweep as a USAC first; the 2008 Daytona 500 win.