‘Walking miracle’ Newman returns

NASCAR is returning this weekend and so is Ryan Newman.

Newman, who was involved in a horrifying wreck during the Daytona 500 in February before the coronavirus pandemic put the sports world on pause, will climb back into his No. 6 Ford on Sunday afternoon at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina.

Eight events have been postponed since NASCAR’s last race — March 8 in Phoenix — and in that time Newman has been able to get himself back in a position to return to stock car racing’s top series despite a head injury that landed him in the hospital for two days.

“Every layer (of the crash) had multiple miracles that allowed me to walk out with my daughters,” Newman said Thursday.

Newman, 42, was referring to a photo of him holding hands with his two daughters that went viral after he was released from Daytona’s Halifax Medical Center some 42 hours after the crash.

“That’s the part, for me, that makes me feel how special it was — the miracle part of it,” Newman said, via ESPN. “I don’t remember anything about being in the hospital. … but I do remember putting my arms around my daughters’ chests and walking out and holding their hands as I did that. And that tells me that God was involved. That tells me that I was blessed in more ways than one, and makes me so thankful for what I went through, and being able to have people around me that I love and trust afterward. I don’t know how to describe it more than that. I feel like a complete walking miracle.”

Here is the AP’s description of the crash that sent