The crash that NASCAR star Ryan Newman was involved in at the Daytona 500 on Monday night has led to questions about driver’s safety. Newman is expected to survive the injuries he suffered during the crash, but many fans are wondering how this could have been prevented. Over the years, NASCAR has made big changes to the tracks and cars to prevent major accidents from happening and it goes back to what happened in 2001 when racing legend Dale Earnhardt died after a crash he was involved in at the Daytona 500.
CBS This Morning talked to Andy Petree who is the VP of Competition at Richard Childress Racing who said safety has always been a big priority at NASCAR.
Videos by PopCulture.com
“If you think about it, race 200 miles an hour, side-by-side, you can flip up in the air and 99 times out of 100, these guys are getting out of the car and walking away,” Petree said. “But this time it didn’t happen.”
Manuel Bojorquez of CBS News said Petree’s company helped build “a new generation of sports cars” that will be used by every driver starting next year. However, Bojorquez talked to a sports columnist in Daytona and he said speed restrictions at Daytona International Speedway keep drivers close to each other which could be a problem moving forward.
Petree is right about drivers walking away from a big accident. But in Newman’s case, he was hit by another driver, hit the wall, flipped a few times and then skidded across the track while the car was on fire. The crash stemmed from when Ryan Blaney gave a push to Newman in hopes to win the Daytona 500.
“We pushed Newman there to the lead and then we got a push from [Denny Hamlin]. … I was committed to just pushing [Newman] to the win and having a Ford win it and got the bumpers hooked up wrong,” Blaney said.
Instead of Newman winning his second Daytona 500, Hamiln ended up winning his third and second in as many years. The Newman crash was scary, but it wasn’t the only crash of the Daytona 500. Earlier in the race, Joey Logano started a multi-car crash that took out a few drivers including Jimmie Johnson who was taking part in his final Daytona 500 as he’s retiring after the 2020 season.
