ROUGEMONT, N.C. Ryan Newman has 18 victories and 733 starts in the NASCAR Cup Series, but he may have collected one of his most thrilling victories Saturday at Orange County Speedway.

Newman used a three-wide pass for the lead to win the Rumble in Rougemont for the SMART Modified Tour at the three-eighths-mile race track.

I went into turn three third and was leading at the start-finish line three wide, Newman explained after the race. I was pretty proud of myself at that point and it was important because the next lap the yellow came out and we reverted back to the last lap, which made us the leader and gave us control of the restart.

It was Newmans first victory in the series.

Good team effort with Randy Renfrow and Coulter Motorsports, Newman said. Thankful for a hard-fought win because we have struggled to start the season.

Newman found Orange County Speedway to his liking in an event that featured plenty of side-by-side racing.

Most of it is due to the fact that the groove is in the middle of the race track, Newman explained. You have room to get up, you have room to do slide jobs, you have room to run side by side. It has a lot of character. It has grass coming up through the cracks. It has patches where you can get a little extra grip. It is all that stuff that I like. It reminds me a lot of IRP, where you dont run up next to the wall and you dont run down low, but you can if you want to. Its just a really good race track.

Newman, 47, held off teenager Paulie Hartwig III on a late restart en route to victory.

I didnt want to get beat by an eighth grader on the last restart, said Newman. Theres nothing wrong with that I was beaten by Carson Loftin a few times last year and he was 15.