Ryan Newman: NASCAR Drivers Return to Track and Poke Fun at Injured Star Amid Recovery From Daytona Crash

As of Wednesday, Ryan Newman was safely out of the hospital following his devastating car crash in the final seconds of the Daytona 500 this year. As a result, much of the somber mood in the wake of the crash has been lifted. Such is the case with several of Newman’s fellow NASCAR drivers, who, according to Racer.com, told reporters at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway that many of them have already fallen back into their old rapport.

“I shot him a text,” Newman’s former teammate Austin Dillon. “I said, ‘I’ve never been so glad to see a picture of you.’”

“I’m going to call him probably this week,” Dillon continued. “I’m sure he’s been super busy. Luke Lambert, his crew chief, I saw him getting on the plane and Luke told me that he had talked to him. He said he’s the same ol’ Ryan, he’s good to go. He’s being his normal self when he’s talking.”

Similarly, Joey Logano said that it didn’t take long for he and Newman to resume their long-running in-joke.

“I texted him and said, ‘I know 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.”

Logano continued by bringing up the obvious safety issues that may have lead to Newman’s crash.

“In some of those areas where the impact seems to be — from at least my non-engineering degree perspective — like it should be stronger in that spot. I’m glad to see that NASCAR is already looking, even before this, in that area, and I look forward to getting in that car and have something even safer to drive.”

Back in April of last year, Newman himself told NBC Sports that he had similar concerns about the safety of the vehicles on the track and that their top speeds of 200 mph or more were simply “way too fast.”

“That’s when cars get airborne. They raised the back of the cars up an inch and it just packs more air underneath them. I hope we keep them on the ground and get lucky because I don’t think they’ve done a good job of keeping them on the ground or making an effort to keep them on the ground.”