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.
“Why would you get back in the car (after such a horrifying crash)?” –@craigmelvin
“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.” –@RyanJNewman pic.twitter.com/4J8xv71ISq
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) March 11, 2020
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.”
“Just a miracle on so many levels.” It’s been less than a month since NASCAR driver @RyanJNewman survived a frightening wreck on the final lap of the Daytona 500.
Ryan joined us for his first interview since that crash. pic.twitter.com/GBxsCJqGlF
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) March 11, 2020
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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