Ryan Newman returns to racing after Daytona 500 crash

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Ryan Newman says he has no memories of his harrowing incident on the remaining lap of the Daytona five hundred. He doesn’t recall currently being in the clinic, who came to take a look at or anything else about his two-night time keep for procedure of a head injuries.

The to start with point Newman can remember is strolling out of a Florida clinic holding arms with his two young daughters. When he afterwards viewed a replay of the crash, he was flabbergasted by the violence of the wreck.

“As I viewed the crash and had to make myself feel what I had went through, I seriously appeared to my father to say, ‘Hey, did this seriously materialize?’” Newman said Thursday. “It is nuts. I’m happy I’m listed here.”

Newman will return to racing Sunday at Darlington Speedway in South Carolina just 3 months immediately after he crashed Feb. seventeen attempting to get his next Daytona five hundred. The coronavirus pandemic authorized Newman further time to mend and he eventually skipped just 3 races.

It truly is a exceptional recovery from a frightful flight down the remaining stretch at Daytona. Newman was bumped from driving and his Ford Mustang made a sharp correct into the wall, went airborne and was hit once more by Corey LaJoie as the crumpled wreckage tumbled along the track with Newman inside of.

Newman doesn’t know if Lajoie’s vehicle compromised his cockpit there is no definitive video demonstrating how his head-and-neck restraint procedure was damaged or how his helmet was “crushed.”

“I do not have anything that is conclusive that says that his vehicle hit my helmet. I do know that pieces of the inside of of my vehicle hit my helmet and crushed it,” Newman said. “My helmet did have speak to and my HANS did have speak to, and I was currently being moved backwards in my seat as his vehicle was relocating me ahead.

“Everything took place seriously quick and almost everything was all in that compartment, in essence, and I guess it would be like a circumstance of superior-excellent whiplash that kind of took place when I was hit.”

He was sedated, he said, practically instantly to quiet him and eventually retain him settled so that his mind could mend. He said he suffered “a mind bruise.”

“I kind of set it in layman’s phrases of owning a bruised mind because every person understands what a bruise is,” said the Purdue engineering graduate and Indiana native. “You simply cannot see a concussion. It is just a medical diagnosis. But a bruise you can see.

“So I kind of self-diagnosed myself with that bruised mind because the fact is you need to have to give time for a bruise to mend and that is what I needed was time for my mind to mend.”

His return coincides with NASCAR’s return to opposition this weekend. The sequence will race with no spectators at Darlington, Newman’s most loved track.

He was healing fast adequate 3 months immediately after the incident that Roush-Fenway Racing took Newman to NASCAR’s oldest superspeedway to take a look at. It was in advance of the shutdown and the eight postponed races retained Newman in rivalry for a playoff location. He is twenty ninth in the standings immediately after four races and still eligible to race for the championship.

Newman said he was keen to get back again into the vehicle when he tested in March.

“I actually had to sluggish myself down and make absolutely sure that I did not go out there and fence it on the to start with lap by seeking way too difficult,” Newman said. “I never ever felt like I had to be apprehensive towards it, other than the reality that I wanted to make absolutely sure that I did not mess up my possess take a look at. I was there to establish that I was valid in the seat once more.”

Newman, extended identified as the most difficult driver in NASCAR to move, said he’s race fit for Sunday’s event on a single of the most complex tracks in the sequence.

“I’m hoping to do just about every lap and then a single more immediately after that — I assume they are owning a victory lap still,” he said.

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