Newman comes up short again, but sees big picture

LONG POND, Pa. -- For a guy who came within a car-length of winning Sunday's rain-soaked Pocono 500, Ryan Newman was in a pretty good mood.

If the rain that finally ended a very long and soggy day had waited just a few more seconds -- say, half a lap -- it might have been Newman walking to his first Victory Lane celebration since late in the 2005 season at New Hampshire.

Unfriendly skies

With different timing, someone else could have been celebrating in Victory Lane.

• Complete story, click here

"Unfortunately, the rain came on the wrong lap," Newman said. "I'm not mad by any means. I won my first race because it rained out and got too dark. I guess it's only right I lose one that way at some point."

Even though Newman was rapidly gaining ground on eventual winner Jeff Gordon -- going from 3.2 seconds back to even with Gordon's door in a span of four laps -- he knew his chances of winning were all wet.

"It rained on me the lap before that and when we came back around, it rained even harder," Newman said. "It was pouring at that point. It's all in safety."

Team owner Roger Penske said the timing for his driver was unfortunate, but that's part of the strategy.

"We saw the rain was coming," Penske said. "Ryan had a good run there but at [that point in] the day, unfortunately, you can't wreck a bunch of cars because it's wet. They might have called it a little bit later but we've got to be careful we're not too greedy.

"We're trying to get into the top 12. I look at the weekend and say we made a lot of progress."

Penske said the finish reminded him of this year's Indianapolis 500, when impending rain wiped out the efforts of faster cars, including his own.

"We had the same situation at Indy," he said. "The rain came four minutes too soon there. It maybe came 10 seconds too soon [here]. But on the other hand, I think we just have to say, 'Hey, good race here, safe race and let's move on to Michigan."

Newman admitted that the ways things played out, there was little he could do except accept his second-place finish, his fifth top-10 run in the past six races. (Continued)