Tag: Daytona 500

Why Ryan Newman isn’t thinking about NASCAR retirement after scary Daytona 500 crash

Recovering from a head injury, Ryan Newman said he wants to return to NASCAR as soon as possible.

NASCAR driver Ryan Newman has no timetable to return to racing, likely because he’s still recovering from the head injury he suffered during a horrific crash on the last lap of the 2020 Daytona 500 last month.

But he said he’s eager to get back in the car “as soon as I possibly can.”

For the first time since the last-lap crash — when his car turned, hit the wall, was slammed into by another car, went airborne, landed upside down and slid off the Daytona International Speedway track — Newman was at the race track last weekend at Phoenix Raceway. He briefly spoke with reporters as he walked through the garage area Friday, and said “after looking at my car, it’s a miracle” to be alive. He also said he has no timeline for his return.

Wednesday in his first sit-down interview since the wreck, the TODAY Show‘s Craig Melvin asked the 42-year-old driver why he wouldn’t just call it a career with nearly two decades in the NASCAR Cup Series and after “cheating death” and surviving the crash.

And Newman responded with a joke. He said:

“Oh, I love it. I mean, ’cause I’m just 42, right? No, really, I love it. It’s been a little bit painful to be out of the race car and to not be doing what I’ve done for so many years. I started racing when I was four years old, four and a half years old, so it’s just kind of who I am.”

He also joked that this was his “I-should-have-won interview” because he was leading the Daytona 500 just before the crash.

Immediately following the wreck, an ambulance took him from the track to a nearby hospital, and in a statement from his team, Roush Fenway Racing, he was described as in “serious condition” with not life-threatening injuries.

He was, amazingly, released from the hospital less than 48 hours later. He didn’t break any bones or suffer internal organ damage. But in a statement he released more than two weeks ago, he said he was being treated for a head injury, and doctors are happy with his progress.

On the TODAY Show, he described his head injury as a “bruised brain.” He also said he was “knocked out,” adding: “There was a point where I don’t remember a part of the race.”

Newman opened up Wednesday about his reaction to the crash and joked about how his daughters feel about it. He said he told them, “‘Daddy’s all right.'”

He said:

“It’s emotional, no doubt, and I think about the fact that I was that close but really in the end, I’m really humbled by the opportunity to experience, to continue my life, to be blessed by so many people’s prayers, to be sitting here and hopefully make something of it. Enjoy life with my daughters. …

“They seem to be completely fine with the fact that I’m still Daddy. I think it’d be totally different if something else would have happened, but I’m 100 percent who I was, which they were good with, so I’m fine.”

Following the crash, Ross Chastain has been filling in for Newman in the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford. NASCAR’s next race is Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

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Ryan Newman returns to Roush Fenway shop for first time, gets ovation

NASCAR driver Ryan Newman returned to the Roush Fenway shop on Wednesday for the first time since his accident.

NASCAR driver Ryan Newman continues to recover from the injuries he suffered during the horrifying accident at the end of the 2020 Daytona 500 earlier this month, and after leaving the hospital just days after the accident, Newman has been able to resume many of his normal activities. Newman is being treated for an unspecified head injury, but fortunately did not suffer any other internal injuries.

He was forced to miss last Sunday’s race in Las Vegas, and was replaced by Ross Chastain, and there currently is not a timetable for Newman’s return to the Cup Series. Chastain will fill in for Newman again this weekend at Auto Club Speedway in California.

Newman enjoyed a bit of “therapy” earlier this week, and posted a photo of himself fishing. On Wednesday, Roush Fenway Racing shared that Newman visited the team’s shop for the first time since the accident, and received an ovation from the crew and staff.

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NASCAR drivers haven’t waited very long to roast jokester Ryan Newman after scary crash

Drivers like Martin Truex Jr. and Joey Logano had some jokes after learning Ryan Newman is OK.

Ryan Newman was released from the hospital less than 48 hours after a horrific crash on the last lap of Monday’s Daytona 500.

Although the specifics of any injuries he sustained are not public, Newman was “joking around” with his family and the hospital staff, according to a statement from his team, Roush Fenway Racing, which also said he remained true to his “jovial nature”.

Several NASCAR drivers who have talked with Newman since the accident were happy to say the No. 6 Ford driver’s sense of humor was still intact, and Ryan Blaney — who made contact with Newman, sparking the terrifying wreck — said it “brought a smile to my face.” Drivers have also taken some of the friendly jabs at Newman after learning he’s OK.

Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where NASCAR is racing this weekend, Martin Truex Jr., a good friend of Newman’s, said he saw the driver after he was released from the hospital, and “he’s good spirits.” Truex added:

“I just wanted him to know we were there for him if he needed anything. It was cool. It was good to see the good shape he was in. It was a little surprising as well. We’re planning fishing trips already, so it was a fun visit to hang out.”

Truex also called Newman “a tough son of a gun” but joked:

“He’s got no neck and a big hard head, so that helps for sure. I told him this week he’s lucky he’s such a hard-headed son of a gun.”

Friday at the Las Vegas track, Joey Logano said:

“I texted him and said, ‘I knew it wasn’t your neck that broke. I don’t think you could do that.’ We have a neck joke going back and forth because I’ve got a long one, and he’s got none. We had a good joke about that at least, so his sense of humor still seems to be there.”

Austin Dillon, Newman’s former teammate at Richard Childress Racing, said:

“I shot him a text. I said, ‘I’ve never been so glad to see a picture of you.'”

Corey LaJoie, who hit Newman head-on during the wreck, said he and Newman texted Wednesday night and shared a laugh about one time when they raced go-karts together. LaJoie told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Thursday:

“We shared a couple laughs [about when] we went to that little slick track in Pocono called S&S [Speedways]. And for whatever reason, Newman and I always found each other, and his big ass looked like Bowser in that little go-kart.

“We’re sliding around and smashing into each other, and his head is so big he had to hold the roof up because his head was smashing into it.”

The specifics of Newman’s injuries remain unknown, but he will not be racing this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Ross Chastain is filling in for him in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400.

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Kyle Busch details reaction to Ryan Newman’s Daytona 500 wreck: ‘We’re not invincible’

Kyle Busch spoke about the horrifying end to the 2020 Daytona 500 and his own injuries behind the wheel.

Like so many in the NASCAR world reacting to Ryan Newman’s terrifying wreck on the last lap of the 2020 Daytona 500, Kyle Busch said he feared the worst — “anybody would, right?” — but “you’ve always got to hope for the best.”

Newman crashed at the end of the final lap of Monday’s rain-delayed race. His No. 6 Ford turned, hit the wall and was then hit head-on by Corey LaJoie before landing upside down and sliding off the Daytona International Speedway track. Safety crews attended to Newman, putting out the fire in his car and eventually getting him out of it.

He was taken to a nearby hospital and was eventually released Wednesday, amazingly less than 48 hours after the crash.

The wreck was a blunt reminder of the dangers of NASCAR, which Busch knows about all too well himself. At the beginning of the 2015 season, Busch wrecked in the second-tier XFINITY Series race at Daytona, breaking his right leg and fracturing his left foot in the closing laps.

At Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Friday, Busch said when someone is injured, like Newman was Monday, it’s also a reminder for the drivers that “it could be any of us in that situation.”

Asked about waiting for updates on Newman’s safety and condition, he said:

“I would sense that all of us are kind of wanting to know as soon as possible to know for ourselves, not necessarily because we want to get it out and leak any sort of news. It’s just a matter of self-assurance that those that you’re racing against are OK.

“It could be any of us in that situation at any particular time, especially with [superspeedway] racing and those places you race so fast and so close together the whole time that those crashes tend to happen a lot.”

The No. 18 Toyota driver — who’s also the defending Cup Series champion – said after his own injury, it was “tough” for him to get back in the car. But he did after missing 11 races and ended up winning his first title in 2015.

Several drivers, including Busch and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Denny Hamlin, who won his second straight Daytona 500 as Newman was wrecking, have praised the safety developments over the last couple decades.

Terrible wrecks like this happen somewhat regularly at Daytona and Talladega Superspeedway, and the drivers involved are almost always unharmed. But because of that, “sometimes you take it for granted” that drivers will walk way fine, Busch said.

Citing his own injury — plus Hamlin’s fractured back in 2013 and Aric Almirola’s fractured back in 2017 — Busch expanded on the risks drivers face. He continued:

“What we’re doing, the severity of what we’re doing, the course of action of what injury can happen – it can happen in any instance. We’re not invincible. Safety is always an evolution. There’s going to be something else that happens that we have to go through and figure out the circumstances as to why it happened, how can we prevent it from happening again.

“Not sure what all the instances are in the Newman crash, but there still will be something else down the road I’m sure. We saw it with, I think it was, Austin Theriault here, who broke his back in a truck crash years ago. Denny, obviously, his back, as well as Almirola’s.

“There’s a lot of things that will still come of the evolution of safety for all of us. My wreck, we made a lot of changes and advancements — let’s call it — to the race cars, and hopefully, that can help prevent those such injuries happening again.”

Although the specifics of Newman’s injuries remain unknown, he will not be racing this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Ross Chastain is filling in for him in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400.

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NASCAR driver who bumped Ryan Newman at Daytona 500 says he’s been ‘replaying’ finish ‘over and over’

Ryan Blaney made contact with Ryan Newman, who wrecked badly on the last lap of the Daytona 500.

In the days since the 2020 Daytona 500 finish when Ryan Newman was in a horrible wreck and taken to the hospital, Ryan Blaney has been “replaying the events in [his] head over and over” and thinking about what he could have “done differently ever since.”

In his first comments about the crash since immediately speaking with reporters after the race, No. 12 Ford driver said on Twitter that he and Newman spoke Wednesday night — Newman was released from the hospital earlier that day — about what played out. Blaney added that Newman’s sense of humor was still intact and “brought a smile to my face.”

On the last lap of Monday’s rain-delayed Daytona 500, Newman, Blaney and eventual Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin were fighting for the win. As Blaney later explained, if he couldn’t win the race, he said wanted a fellow Ford driver, Newman, to win over Hamlin in a Toyota. So as Newman had the lead coming down the frontstretch of Daytona International Speedway one last time, Blaney tried to give him a push.

Instead, however, Blaney said his No. 12 Ford and Newman’s No. 6 Ford “just got bumpers hooked up wrong and turned” Newman, who then hit the wall before being slammed into by Corey LaJoie. Newman went airborne, and his car landed upside and slid off the track with sparks and flames coming out of it.

He was taken to a nearby hospital in “serious condition” Monday night and was released, miraculously, less than 48 hours later.

In a Twitter post Thursday night, Blaney also addressed the crash and his brief conversation with Newman.

Blaney wrote:

“I don’t think you will ever see someone as tough as Ryan Newman, to see him walk out of that hospital with his girls brought a tear to my eye. I was lucky enough to speak with him last night briefly about what happened Monday, it was just good to hear his voice to be honest. His Ryan Newman humor was at large and brought a smile to my face. The recovery he has made the past few days have been remarkable. I look forward to seeing him soon to talk about it more.

We are all competitors racing for wins every weekend but at the same time are one big family, and you never want to see family get hurt. Have been replaying the events in my head over and over about what I could’ve done differently ever since. I’m very luck to have a great family, friends, team and incredible fans that have helped me out this week. I can’t thank everyone enough for that.

I can’t wait to have Rocketman Ryan Newman back at the track racing as hard as ever.”

When Blaney spoke with reporters Monday on pit road after the race, he was clearly distraught and shaken up by what had just happened. He repeatedly said spinning Newman was “definitely unintentional.”

Earlier on the final lap, Blaney gave Newman a huge push ahead of Hamlin, and when Blaney then tried to pass Newman for the lead at the very end, Newman successfully blocked him. Blaney said that’s when he tried to push a Ford to win over Hamlin’s Toyota:

“I was just committing to pushing him to the win once he blocked a couple times, was kind of beat. Just hope Ryan’s all right. It sucks to lose a race, but you never want to see anyone get hurt.”

While it is unclear how long Newman will be out of the car, he’s obviously not racing this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Ross Chastain is filling in for Newman in the No. 6 Ford for Sunday’s race.

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NASCAR driver who hit Ryan Newman says they ‘shared a couple laughs’ after hospital release

Corey LaJoie said he and Ryan Newman joked laughed about this go-kart story Wednesday night.

NASCAR driver Cory LaJoie didn’t even know who he hit when he smashed into Ryan Newman at the end of the last lap of the 2020 Daytona 500.

And, like so many other people at the track, he didn’t realize the severity of Newman’s situation until he was evaluated and released from the infield care center. He was just excited about the idea of finishing eighth in NASCAR’s biggest race because it was only his third top-10 finish.

But after being cleared by the care center, LaJoie said he learned about the seriousness of Newman’s wreck.

“My stomach dropped, and I thought I was going to puke,” LaJoie told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Thursday.

Racing for the win on the last lap, Newman and his No. 6 Ford was out front with Ryan Blaney in the No. 12 Ford behind him. Blaney said their bumpers got “hooked up wrong,” and Newman’s car turned and hit the wall before LaJoie’s No. 32 Ford collided with him. LaJoie said it “was the hardest hit I’ve had.”

Newman’s car flew through the air before landing upside down and sliding off the track. He was taken to a nearby hospital and was in “serious condition” Monday night, but his injuries were not life threatening, according to his team, Roush Fenway Racing.

And then miraculously, Newman was released from the hospital Wednesday afternoon, not even 48 hours after the wreck.

LaJoie said it’s been a “very emotional week” for him, Blaney and, of course, Newman. “It seems like all three of us are doing well for the circumstances,” he said.

He also mentioned that he and Newman texted Wednesday night and explained Newman is still in Florida at fellow NASCAR driver (and his fishing buddy) Martin Truex Jr.’s house.

On SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, LaJoie said they joked about a gathering for Ford drivers near Pocono Raceway, which included indoor go-karts:

“We texted last night. We shared a couple laughs. … We went to that little slick track in Pocono called S&S [Speedways]. And for whatever reason, Newman and I always found each other, and his big ass looked like Bowser in that little go-kart. We’re sliding around and smashing into each other, and his head is so big he had to hold the roof up because his head was smashing into it.

“So we shared a laugh over [that]. I said, ‘Man, it was almost like we were back at that slick track in Pocono, but unfortunately, we were going 200 miles an hour instead of seven.’ And he thought that was funny. He’s down there still I guess in Martin’s house in Florida. What a blessing to be able to share a laugh with Ryan not even almost 48 hours after everybody assumed the worst.”

LaJoie also explained a little about what it feels like to be in a wreck going about 200 miles an hour. He said hit Newman at basically full speed and got the wind knocked out of him, which is why, when he got out of the car, he fell to his knees.

View this post on Instagram

They say a picture is worth 1000 words. A lot of speculation as to what was going through my little noggin here. Here’s the facts. The wind was knocked out of me so I was catching my breath, I was wiggling my fingers and toes to make sure they were still connected, I was confused as my brain tried to process what my body just went through and I was hurting from the sub straps containing the force of the frontal impact. While I was down there I did send up a “thank you Jesus for your hand of protection” prayer and at that moment I had no idea who I hit or the severity of it. I’m hearing very optimistic things on Ryan’s condition so your prayers are working guys, keep it rolling.

A post shared by Corey LaJoie (@coreylajoie) on

The photo quickly circulated around NASCAR social media, and LaJoie clarified what exactly what was happening in that moment because, again, he didn’t even realize Newman was injured at that point. He told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio:

“I really didn’t have a grip on what happened until probably Wednesday afternoon. [That’s] when it finally sunk in, and I was able to digest everything feelings wise and just the whole situation because I’ve never really been in a situation like that. I’ve never really been in a big superspeedway crash to that point. So it’s crazy how fast it happens, crazy how people don’t realize how much it hurts when you hit something that hard or that fast.

“If anybody’s gotten in a wreck on the road at 40 miles an hour, they know how much that hurts, and we’re going 190, 200 miles an hour. It definitely makes your body do a lot of funky things it’s not used to. That’s why that little picture that was kind of going viral there on Twitter and Facebook there. I was on my knees. I kind of addressed it on my Instagram.

“People assumed or speculated that I got out because I was in a praying position. I honestly was on my knees because I was in pain. The wind was knocked out of me. Granted, I said a thank you for protection prayer up to the big guy because I knew it was a nasty wreck, but at that point in time, I had no idea who I hit or the severity of it.”

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Ryan Newman’s recovery from horrifying Daytona 500 wreck is NASCAR’s latest miracle

Ryan Newman was released from the hospital less than 48 hours after being in a violent crash at the Daytona 500.

The finish of the 2020 Daytona 500 was the second time I thought I witnessed a race car driver’s death in person. Luckily, neither worst-case scenario came to fruition, but every time a driver survives a violent and horrifying wreck, it’s a reminder of not only how dangerous motor sports can be, but also how racing fans see real-life miracles all the time.

The first crash was at the 2017 Indianapolis 500, when Scott Dixon’s car was shredded to pieces after he made contact with another car, flew through the air and bounced and spun out of control before eventually stopping. Looking at photos and watching the replay, it’s astonishing that Dixon was OK and cleared by the medical care center on the spot at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The second time was on the last lap of Monday’s rain-delayed race at Daytona International Speedway.

In a three-way battle for the win between Ryan Newman, Ryan Blaney and eventual winner Denny Hamlin, Blaney in the No. 12 Ford was pushing Newman in the No. 6 Ford to the finish line because if he couldn’t win, he said he wanted their manufacturer to be in Victory Lane rather than Hamlin’s Toyota.

But, as Blaney explained after the race, they “just got bumpers hooked up wrong and turned” Newman, who slammed into the wall before being hit head-on by Corey LaJoie, going airborne and landing upside down. With sparks and flames shooting out of it, Newman’s car slid from the track to the end of pit road.

For the last few laps of the race, I was standing on pit road parallel to the finish line. My jaw literally dropped as the wreck unfolded right in front of me.

Safety and emergency crews attended to Newman, putting out the flames, getting him out of the car and transporting him to a nearby Daytona Beach hospital. Incredibly, he was released from the hospital Wednesday afternoon.

It’s an actual miracle that less than 48 hours from being in “serious condition” Monday night, Newman was walking out of the hospital with his daughters’ hands in his.

(Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

If you don’t watch NASCAR regularly — and there are a lot of you who don’t — seeing Newman’s wreck was probably exceptionally shocking. It was unreal to those of us who see massive and terrifying wrecks somewhat regularly, so I can’t imagine how general sports fans reacted to it.

I was stunned, like I always am after a car flips, barrel rolls, lands upside down or catches on fire. Now in my fourth season covering NASCAR, I’ve seen so many scary and violent crashes, and the drivers involved almost always walk away unharmed.

In the past, drivers have tragically lost their lives on the track. But, thankfully, it hasn’t happened in NASCAR’s national series in nearly two decades, not since Dale Earnhardt Sr. was killed on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. And with the advancements in safety technology since then, that feels like a different era of NASCAR.

“NASCAR has done a fantastic job of evolution of race cars,” Hamlin said in the post-race press conference. “Helmet manufacturers, suit manufacturers, HANS devices [head and neck support], there’s just been so much development that’s come a long way, and I always think about how blessed I am to come in this sport in 2006 when all that stuff was really being implemented.”

Massive, multi-car wrecks are a given at tracks like Daytona and Talladega Superspeedway, and after this, NASCAR needs to investigate new ways to protect drivers at these tumultuous venues.

But the frequency at which giant wrecks occur and drivers largely being uninjured is also a testament to how safe the sport has become — while always toeing the line of disaster.

So after Newman’s crash, it wasn’t until a few minutes later while interviewing drivers on pit road that I realized it was taking longer than usual to get Newman out of the car and that he may have been seriously injured. The longer we went without any indication that Newman was OK — and drivers repeatedly asked reporters if we had any updates — the faster my heart raced as I wondered if he was conscious. Or even alive.

It’s a good bet Blaney was wondering the same thing. He was noticeably, and understandably, shaken up by the crash, insisting he wasn’t purposefully spinning Newman out. He said he just wanted to help get a Ford teammate across the finish line first and clearly felt awful about something beyond his control.

“I hope he’s all right,” Blaney said on pit road Monday night. “You never want to see anyone get hurt.”

Amazingly, it appears Newman is all right. Although we don’t know specifics about any injuries he may have suffered, he went from “serious condition” Monday night to “fully alert” and “joking around” by Wednesday morning to walking out of the hospital later that day.

The timeline is an actual miracle and evidence that — although racing can never be too safe and should always strive to improve — perhaps drivers are more protected than ever.

So if every awful wreck serves as a reminder of just how dangerous NASCAR can be, every driver walking away is a reminder that the sport, thankfully, witnesses miracles all the time.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. defends Denny Hamlin’s celebration, compares Daytona 500 finish to 2001 tragedy

Dale Jr. said fans attacking Denny Hamlin were being “overly critical.”

Denny Hamlin didn’t know the severity of Ryan Newman’s last-lap crash when he began celebrating his second consecutive Daytona 500 victory. The No. 11 Toyota driver did a burnout on the grass near the frontstretch at Daytona International Speedway and continued his celebration with his team in Victory Lane.

But as soon as they learned Newman — whose car spun, hit the wall before being slammed into by Corey LaJoie, went airborne and slid off the track upside down — might not be OK, they stopped celebrating and team owner Joe Gibbs immediately apologized. Gibbs later apologized again as he, Hamlin and spotter Chris Lambert explained they didn’t realize what was happening.

Newman was taken to a nearby Daytona Beach hospital and was released Wednesday, less than 48 hours after the crash.

Despite the No. 11 team’s explanation, NASCAR fans on Twitter relentlessly criticized Hamlin and the team after the crash for celebrating their win, which Dale Earnhardt Jr. described as “overly critical” with Twitter being “all over the dang place.”

On his weekly podcast, the Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt defended the team’s immediate actions, again noting its apology. He also compared the aftermath to that of the 2001 Daytona 500, when his father, Dale Earnhardt Sr., was tragically killed on the last lap of the race as Michael Waltrip won the first race of his career.

Dale Jr. explained:

“Denny goes and celebrates his win, and he caught a lot of flack for that. And I didn’t feel like that was deserving. I appreciate Joe Gibbs issuing an apology, but I didn’t feel it was necessary. But in this day and time, it certainly is for people get triggered so easily.

“But if people think back [to] Dad’s accident in 2001, Michael celebrated. He was in Victory Lane with his entire team celebrating — the team owned by my dad — before they finally were getting the right information. And no one ever in that moment went, ‘Oh, how dare Michael be celebrating until we figure out what’s going on with Earnhardt?’ So it’s a different time, and people react differently to those type of situations. I think they’re being overly critical of Denny and his team.

“It’s unfortunate that someone in that camp did not get to Denny quicker and tell him to pause and hold on his celebration. It didn’t happen, and it’s unfortunate, but it’s not anyone was right or wrong. It’s just how it played out. And we’ve seen it happen before and we’ve been much less critical in other situations that were extremely similar.”

Earnhardt and podcast co-host Mike Davis also brought up the 2015 summer race at Daytona. Junior won as Austin Dillon was involved in a huge wreck with his No. 3 Chevrolet ending up in the catchfence.

Comparing that situation to the one Hamlin was in Monday night, Earnhardt said he most likely would have been celebrating his win if he hadn’t seen Dillon’s wreck unfold behind him.

He continued on the Dale Jr. Download:

“If I had no idea that the 3 car went into the grandstands, I definitely probably would have been celebrating. But I happened to, just at that moment, catch a glimpse of what I thought was the bottom of the car, so in my mind, I’m assuming that the roof of that car had went into the fence, which is a terrible scenario.

“I’ve seen a lot of bad things in racing, and I’ve seen more than one death at a race track. I’ve been at race tracks where people have lost their lives and multiple times. So I feel like Denny, he won the race. He obviously did not see the severity of the crash in the mirror. He did not understand — how could he know that Corey LaJoie made contact with Newman’s car the way it did? None of us would have known, had we not seeing it on TV with the replays and so forth, right? We all had much more, much, much more information than Denny ever had. That’s all I think needs to be said about that.”

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Ryan Newman walks out of hospital hand-in-hand with daughters days after horrific crash

Ryan Newman walked out of the hospital holding his daughters’ hands after his horrific crash on the final lap of the Daytona 500.

Ryan Newman walked out of the hospital holding his daughters’ hands after his horrific crash on the final lap of the Daytona 500.

Ryan Newman update: Driver has been treated and released from hospital

Newman walked out of the hospital with his two daughters holding his hand.

Ryan Newman has officially been released from the hospital following a terrifying wreck on the final lap of the Daytona 500 on Monday.

Newman’s car flipped over and was hit at full speed by a second car before it slid down the track on its roof. After the collision, he was transported to a hospital where he was listed in serious condition.

News came that Newman was conscious and alert on Wednesday afternoon and that he was laughing and joking with his family while still hospitalized.

Just a few hours later, his team shared a photo of him walking out of the hospital hand in hand with his two daughters.

Krissie Newman shared a video of the three walking out of the hospital together.

People both inside the NASCAR world and out were elated to see Newman walk out of the hospital himself along with his family.

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