Ryan Newman began to join the spoils of winning the Daytona 500 on Monday -- little sleep, various media appearances and a trip to New York City. He's scheduled to appear on David Lettermen's show Monday night. He's scheduled to appear on "Live with Regis and Kelly'' on Tuesday morning, along with various ESPN apperances on Tuesday.

A question is will Sunday's win help Newman extend his contract with Penske Racing? He came up with the team, running ARCA and Busch races before making his first Cup start in 2000. He's always driven for Penske but Newman says his contract expires after this season. Newman, Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards and Reed Sorenson are among the drivers whose contracts expire this season. Newman didn't seem concerned Monday.

"We have the paperwork in progress,'' Newman said of a contact extension with Penske. "We just have to sit down and talk about it.''

Also, to listen to what Newman and Tony Stewart said after the race, check out my podcast.

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I've gotten this question from a few people who are wondering what the numbers after the laps completed for a driver are. That's NASCAR's driver rating. The Associated Press is running the rating now instead of how much money a driver wins.

Here is the explanation I got from a writer from The Associated Press. This is the note the AP got from NASCAR when they asked what the rating meant.

"The Driver Rating is a formula develped with the help of STATS that (NASCAR) has been using for the past three yeas. The number has proved to be the best indicator of driver performance for any given race or set of races (NASCAR has). The formula combines the following categories: Wins, finishes top-15 finishes, average running position while on lead lap, average speed under green, fastest lap, led most laps, lead-lap finish. Maximum is 150 points per race.

The stat like the QB rating is a quick reference to determine how a driver performed throughout a race -- a driver rating of 120 is strong, a driver rating of 50 is weak. For example, Jimmie Johnson at the 2007 Spring Michigan race ran very well all day leading several laps until he ran out of fuel late in the race, finishing 19th. However, his driver rating was a very strong 121.8 reflecting his overall effort.''

Hope that helps.

For more on Sunday's Daytona 500, check out my previous blog entry.

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