Ryan Newman anticipates completing every lap on Sunday at Darlington Raceway in his first start in the NASCAR Cup Series since suffering a bruised brain on the final lap of the Daytona 500.
In fact, he hopes to complete one additional lap, too.
The victory lap.
Newman says he still doesn’t remember most of The Great American Race, much less leading out of the final corner before contact with Ryan Blaney sent him forward-facing into the outside retaining wall and then back towards oncoming traffic.
The 42-year-old has no recollection of the resulting contact between himself and Corey LaJoie or skidding upside down and on fire across the finish line.
The only memories he has from the incident are waking up to his family the next day and walking out of the hospital with his daughters in each hand one day after that.
Roush Fenway Racing
"I don’t remember anything about being in the hospital," Newman said during a media teleconference on Thursday. "I couldn’t tell you who came to visit me. I couldn’t tell you who was in the room, but I do remember putting my arms around my daughters’ chests and walking out and holding their hands as I did that.
"That tells me God was involved. That tells me that I was blessed in more ways than one and makes me so thankful for what I went through and being able to have the people around me that I love and trust afterwards. I don’t even know how to describe it more than that.
"I feel like a complete walking miracle."
Newman says he still isn’t sure what knocked him out. The initial data suggested that part of the No. 32 car driven by Lajoie may have struck Newman in the head, but the driver facing onboard video camera doesn’t fully reveal what transpired.
Chris GraythenGetty Images
"I do know that parts of the inside of my car hit my helmet and crushed it, so to speak," Newman said. "I don’t have any defined video that I can give a 100 percent answer that this is exactly the second this happened. But I see the end result and that my helmet did have contact, my HANS did have contact, and I was being moved backward in my seat as his car was moving me forward.
"So, I can’t honestly tell you what percentage of that inertia and those physics that went into the actual action of the crash were being driven by his car hitting me or his car hitting my roll bars. It’s not a fair assessment to say. Everything happened really quickly, and everything was all in that compartment. I guess it would be like a case of high-quality whiplash that happened when I was hit."
Fire responders first reached Newman 19 seconds after his No. 6 Roush Fenway Ford Mustang came to a stop. Paramedics were inside the car 16 seconds later.
Newman was transported to Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach, where doctors placed him into a medically induced coma. They also briefly inserted a PICC line into his chest to feed blood to his heart.
"They were trying to keep me in a somewhat medically induced coma, from what I’ve been told, and that medicine kind of zoned me out," Newman said. "So, I don’t really have any memories or recollection of any of my crash until I actually had my arms around my daughters walking out of the hospital.
"I wouldn’t call it a vegetative state, but I wasn’t a fruit either," he added with a laugh. "I was meant to be relaxed."
He evenly distributed the credit for saving his life to the work of the safety officials, the NASCAR safety provisions built into his chassis and the a new helmet that he was wearing for just the second time -- a new carbon fiber model developed by Arai.
Chris GraythenGetty Images
He has since fully recovered from the injuries and was cleared to compete by NASCAR on Apr 27.
However, he still has no memory of the incident. He first viewed it the night after he left Halifax Health, and he still has to convince himself that the crash happened, despite having no memories of that night whatsoever.
"As I watched the crash, I had to make myself believe what I had went through," Newman said. "I really looked over to my dad to say, 'Hey, did this really happen?' Like, there’s no déjà vu when there’s no deja.
"It was just kind of like, 'All right, I believe you.' It’s crazy. I’m just happy I’m here."
And he’s here with the hopes of winning his way into the Cup Series playoffs.
"I’m hoping to do every lap and then one more after that," Newman said. "I think they are having a victory lap still. I was ready to do that in Daytona too."
That much he does remember.
Jared C. TiltonGetty Images
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