Newman eager to hit the track
NASCAR driver survived horrific crash at this year’s Daytona 500.
Fresh from his hospital stay, Ryan Newman watched the final lap of the 2020 Daytona 500 pretty much like everyone else had days earlier — in abject horror while holding out hope.
Newman, the victim of a horrific and life-threatening crash that gripped the sports world for 48 hours, had survived. He could barely fathom how after what he’d just witnessed.
“As I watched in the next, call it 24 hours, as I watched the crash and had to make myself believe what I had went through,”
Newman recalled Thursday, “I really looked to my dad to say, ‘Hey, did this really happen?’ Like it was kind of there’s no déjà vu. It was just kind of like, ‘All right, I believe you.’ It’s crazy.
“I’m happy I’m here.”
Newman does not recall the series of events that stunned spectators, rattled fellow drivers and sent him to the hospital and into the intensive care unit.
Newman’s first recollection following the Feb. 17 crash was exiting the local medical center two days later holding the hands of daughters Brooklyn Sage and Ashlyn Olivia.
“That tells me God was involved,” he said during a videoconference with reporters. “I was blessed in more ways than one. I feel like a walking miracle.”
“I was blessed in more ways than one. I feel like a walking miracle.”
— Ryan Newman on his crash at the Daytona 500
Exactly three months since the crash, Newman is set to return to the track Sunday at Darlington Raceway. Meanwhile, NASCAR looks to make a comeback of its own following a nine-week hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The setting is fitting for Newman. He calls the storied South Carolina speedway his favorite track on the circuit due to its proximity to the fencing and unique egg-shaped oval.
The 42-year-old recently ran about 30 laps at Darlington to test tires and get back behind the wheel after the layoff.
Nicknamed “Rocket Man” for his fearless and aggressive style on the track and 51 pole wins, Newman said he experienced no trepidation climbing into his No. 6 Ford Mustang.
“I actually felt just the opposite,” he said. “I was so excited and ready to go and just kind of prove myself that I actually had to slow myself down and make sure that I didn’t go out there and fence it on the first lap by trying too hard. So I never felt like I had to be apprehensive toward it.
“I was there to prove that I was valid in the seat again.”
Newman is an 18-time Cup Series race winner in his 20th season. He has nothing really to prove.
But a second Daytona 500 win — he won the 2008 race — would have placed Newman’s career at another level. While thankful to be healthy and racing again, Newman has considered what could have been under the lights at Daytona International Speedway.
“I am still disappointed in the fact that I have seen the replays and know that I was that close to a second Daytona 500 victory, but that’s just the way it works,” he said. “I’ve always said in this sport when you win a race one way, you will eventually lose a race that way, and I lost a race that way, so hopefully some day I can win a race that way.
“It’s kind of like what comes around goes around.”
Newman said he still has not watched most of the race and does not recall the majority of it.
Leading the Daytona 500 en route to the finish line on the final stretch, Newman lost control of his car and slammed into the wall after teammate Ryan Blaney bumped the car’s left rear. Newman’s vehicle became airborne and as it descended the car of Corey LaJoie hit the driver’s side window at around 200 mph, sending Newman’s car airborne again and soon into multiple rolls.
Newman finally skidded to a stop upside down in his car and in a twisted pile of metal.
A graduate of Purdue University with an engineering degree, Newman said many factors helped him pull through and recover so quickly after doctors put him into a medically induced coma.
“I think you can pay a lot of attribution to the safety of the race car, the safety of my helmet, my equipment,” he said. “Everything aligned in so many ways. The safety workers, the personnel that were involved, that were inside the car with me, spent time with me during and after the crash, every layer of it there was multiple miracles — big miracles and little miracles, in my opinion — that aligned for me to be able to walk out days later with my hands around my daughters.
“I’m just proud of how everybody has united in the past say 20 years that I’ve been involved in this sport to make the tracks safer, the walls safer, the cockpit safer, the seat safer. I am the net result, or at least I feel like I am.”
Newman’s diagnosis following the crash remains a mystery. He calls it simply a “brain bruise” that at no point led to balance or memory problems.
“I just needed to give it some time to heal,” Newman said.
The past eight weeks, Newman has felt like himself. He now plans to drive like it.
No backup driver will be on hand in case Newman is not up to the demands of the 400-mile race.
“I’m hoping to do every lap and then one more after that,” he said. “I think they are having a victory lap still. I was ready to do that in Daytona.”
Newman instead experienced a victory of another sort and received a chance to take inventory of his life.
The Indiana native loves his North Carolina farm and the time he’s had with his daughters. Yet at his core, Newman is driven to drive.
He is not going to let a harrowing experience slow him down.
“Yeah, I enjoy the outdoor life. I enjoy farming. I enjoy the cows, the buffalo,” Newman said. “But I really just enjoy racing. I’ve been a race fan all my life. My dad got me started racing quarter midgets when I was 4½, so I’m excited about getting back behind the wheel.”