Opponents have questions after Newman's eighth win

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Ryan Newman's latest Winston Cup victory has opponents wondering how the No. 12 Dodge can go so far on a tank of gas.

Those opponents who were talking, that is, after Newman's display of fuel conservation at Kansas Speedway on Sunday.

Newman elected not to take part in a flurry of pit stops with 65 laps to go, then held off a furious challenge from Bill Elliott to win the Banquet 400.

It was his series-leading eighth victory of the year, and the third in his last five races.

After the race, the second-year driver -- who last pitted 79 laps from the end -- and crew chief Matt Borland had to fend off allegations of rule breaking.

"I can tell you firsthand: We're not cheating. We don't cheat," said Newman, who finished second to Jeff Gordon here in 2001 and 2002. "That's basically it. They can think what they want. They can say what they want."

Elliott, who led 115 of 267 laps, didn't show up in the media center after the race. Instead, he issued a statement through Dodge: "We had a good car, but it was just one of them days."

But Jeremy Mayfield, who finished third as Dodges took the top three spots, had plenty to say -- even though he stayed out of the pits along with Newman.

"I'm not an engineer," Mayfield said. "But I know that if you've got 22 gallons of fuel in your car, and everybody's got the same length fuel line and everybody's got so much horsepower, it takes so much fuel to make that."

Newman holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue.

Elliott, third after a restart with 14 laps to go on the 1 1/2-mile tri-oval, got held up momentarily by Mike Skinner's lapped car. He passed Mayfield with 11 laps to go but could not manage a serious challenge to Newman.

"You can opt for fuel mileage or you can opt for power," said Elliott's crew chief, Mike Ford. "It's very difficult to get both."

Ford called allegations of wrongdoing by Newman's team "purely speculation."

"I never worked on that car," he said. "I wouldn't know."

Gordon finished fifth behind Tony Stewart, failing in his bid to become the first driver to win the first three Winston Cup events at a new venue. Kansas Speedway opened in 2001.

"We were about a third-place car most of the day," Gordon said after his third straight fifth-place finish. "I'm pretty happy with how things turned out."

Points leader Matt Kenseth's struggles continued with his second wreck of the weekend and his second frustrating finish in as many weeks.

Kenseth, starting 32nd in a backup car after he wrecked in practice Friday, crashed in the backstretch Sunday. Kenseth was trying to avoid Michael Waltrip's car after Waltrip spun out in the 68th lap.

Kenseth returned to the race in the 114th lap -- 46 laps down. He finished 36th and saw his lead over Kevin Harvick shrink to 259 points -- down from 354 points last week and 436 two weeks ago.

"If we keep knocking it off 80 or 100 points at a time, we're going to be in good shape for a couple of weeks," said Harvick, who finished sixth.

Last week at Talladega, Kenseth lost his engine and finished 37th.

"This week, it wasn't really bad luck," Kenseth said. "It was poor driving by me and poor decisions with the car. We're doing it to ourselves."

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who came into Sunday's race 30 points behind Harvick, finished 18th and trails Harvick by 66 points.

Elliott, who led 115 of the race's 267 laps, dropped to 15th after the flurry of pit stops that Newman avoided.

The field tightened after the 249th lap, when Johnny Benson hit the frontstretch wall after contact with Mark Martin.

Jimmie Johnson finished seventh, followed in the top 10 by Jamie McMurray, Rusty Wallace and Ricky Rudd.

Johnson's finish came after he was forced to start from the rear in a backup car. He set a track qualifying record in winning the pole Friday, but wrecked during practice Saturday.

Before the wrecks by Waltrip and Kenseth brought out the first of the day's nine cautions, Elliott led 45 of the first 69 laps by margins of up to 6 seconds.