LAS VEGAS -- Ryan Newman won't return to Richard Childress Racing after the 2018 season, ending a five-year run driving the No. 31 car.
Newman has 18 career victories in a full-time Cup career that started in 2002. However, he has won just once in his five seasons at RCR, though he finished second in the Cup standings in 2014 and made the playoffs in three of the past five seasons.
The 40-year-old Newman said he plans to race full time next season and hopes to announce his new team soon.
"Thirty-five years into my racing career, I feel like I'm as good as I've ever been, if not better," Newman said Saturday afternoon. "I've been really close before and my ultimate goal is to win a Cup championship.
"I don't want to quit. I don't want to retire. I've got the blessing of my wife and kids to pursue my goal and not everybody gets that. I look forward to pursuing that goal."
He is 17th in the NASCAR Cup Series standings, having missed the playoffs this year as he went winless in the regular season and finished 58 points behind Alex Bowman for the final playoff spot.
"I have very much enjoyed driving the No. 31 car, and I want to personally thank Richard Childress and everyone at RCR for the support over the past five seasons," Newman said in a statement.
"We were able to put competitive cars on the racetrack, qualify for the playoffs on multiple occasions and make a strong run at a championship, and I'm very proud of what we were able to accomplish."
Newman indicated the frustrating season played a role in him wanting to make a change.
"Not making the playoffs is disappointing for the whole team, and obviously this is a performance-based sport, so that's a factor that goes into it," Newman said. "That's a part of it."
An Indiana native plucked from the USAC sprint-car ranks in the late 1990s by Team Penske, Newman drove seven seasons at Penske, where he won eight races in 2003 in just his second full season. He won two races in 2004, and he has not won more than one race in any season since.
He went to Stewart-Haas Racing in 2009 and then to RCR in 2014. Having driven for some of NASCAR's most notable owners, Newman could drive for another next year, too, as he is a candidate to replace Trevor Bayne at Roush Fenway Racing.
"I want to be at a place where I feel like I can help the team and the team can help me," Newman said.
His departure means that RCR will have a new driver in the No. 31 car next year. Childress said Friday that he had no update on who would drive that car.
Daniel Hemric, who drives for the team in the Xfinity Series, is a likely candidate, but Hemric has been talking to other teams outside of RCR.
"That's the first I've heard of that [Ryan leaving]," Hemric said after finishing 29th in Saturday's Xfinity race. "... We'll get back and re-evaluate and see what the plans are. I don't know. All I know is what is [happening] now, and now we have a championship to chase."
Ty Dillon, grandson of Childress, has said he is committed to RCR affiliate Germain Racing, where his contract runs through 2020.