NASCAR driver Ryan Newman says he doesn’t remember the crash he was in at the end of the Daytona 500 race in February. Newman spoke to reporters on Thursday ahead of his return to the track this weekend. Along with not remembering the crash, Newman said he doesn’t remember his time at the hospital, except when he left with his daughters.
“I was medically treated to not know (about my condition.) They were trying to keep me in a somewhat of a medically-induced coma from what I’ve been told, and that medicine kind of zoned me out, so I really don’t have any memories or recollection of any of my crash until I actually had my arms around my daughters walking out of the hospital,” Newman said to reporters, as transcribed by CNN. Before the crash, which happened on the final lap, Newman was leading the race. When he watched the crash, Newman couldn’t believe he was able to survive since the car spun around, flipped in the air several times and caught fire.
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Newman went on to say his equipment and what happened inside the car helped him survive the crash. He also gave credit to workers at the crash site to help him get out of the car and get him to the hospital. “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 to be able to walk out days later with my hands around my daughters and to be thankful, so I can’t answer all of those things and I don’t think anybody can when miracles do happen, but we need to be thankful for that — at least I am,” he said.
Newman, 42 is one of the top drivers in NASCAR. He has competed in 657 NASCAR Cup Series races in 20 years and has won 18 races with 262 top 10 finishes. His last win was in 2017 at the Camping World 500 in Phoenix. He won the Dayton 500 in 2008 and is tied with Kurt Busch for being the longest-tenured driver on in the Cup Series. Newman and the rest of the NASCAR drivers will be back in action on Sunday at the Darlington Raceway. The race will be called The Real Heroes 400 and will air on Fox.
