Fans may not be able to attend the NASCAR Real Heroes 400 on Sunday, but they can go along for the ride with Ryan Newman‘s in-car camera. The acclaimed driver will have a camera inside his car at the Darlington Raceway in South Carolina this weekend, which will livestream on YouTube. This free feature may draw even more fans to NASCAR’s first race amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Newman is driving the Ford number 6 car in the Real Heroes 400 on Sunday, and fans are invited to “ride shotgun” with him online. The official NASCAR YouTube channel is hosting a livestream from inside of Newman’s car for free on YouTube. The stream is presented by K&N Air Filters. Fans began gathering in the chat section of the stream hours before the race even began.
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Newman is well-known even outside of the NASCAR fandom these days after suffering a terrifying crash at the Daytona 500 back in February. At the time, Newman’s car rolled over on a turn and then caught fire, and it was not immediately clear what his condition was. For several hours, fans were left to fear that he was dead or severely injured in the crash.
Sunday will be Newman’s first time back on the track since then, and he is eager to get back to it. In a press conference this week, he gave new details on the crash, saying that he had bruising of the brain after his helmet was crushed during the crash, according to a report by Fox Sports.
“[The doctors] said based off my scans that it looked like I had no signs of lack of oxygen to my brain, which was a great piece of news and feedback, but I couldn’t tell you if that was because of what they did inside the car, if it was because of how I was hit, or the quality of safety equipment or what,” Newman said. “I don’t have all those answers and I don’t think that will ever exist.”
Newman admitted that he doesn’t “have any recollection of the last lap and everything after that,” saying that his next clear memory after the race is walking “out of the hospital with my daughters.” He was put into a medically induced coma after the crash, but he was released from the hospital within 48 hours of the accident. Newman said that he was thankful for the way everything worked out.
“Everything aligned in so many ways,” he said. “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.”
Watch Newman in the Real Heroes 400 at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX or ride along through his in-car camera on the NASCAR YouTube channel.
