2020 Daytona 500 *Spoilers*

[Antonov]

Bottom post of the previous page:

Newman was 'lucky' that he still carried loads of forward-momentum when he got hit.

I feel this could be a career-ending crash though - if not physically, at least for personal reasons.

[PTRACER]

The extraction video is on twitter/YouTube. Doesn't look like he's been burnt - overalls look fine, and he seems ok but with the standard fitment neck brace. Way he's removed (without a backboard) leaves me wondering what injuries he actually has.

I presume it’s this one, it actually looks like at a stage he is grabbing onto a rescue worker. This video shows the violence of the hit LaJoie took too, thank goodness he got out straight away the fire on his car looked bad.

I'm struggling to see the moment. To me he looks unconscious.

[acerogers58]

The extraction video is on twitter/YouTube. Doesn't look like he's been burnt - overalls look fine, and he seems ok but with the standard fitment neck brace. Way he's removed (without a backboard) leaves me wondering what injuries he actually has.

I presume it’s this one, it actually looks like at a stage he is grabbing onto a rescue worker. This video shows the violence of the hit LaJoie took too, thank goodness he got out straight away the fire on his car looked bad.

I'm struggling to see the moment. To me he looks unconscious.

15:20, it could just be that his arm is wrapped around the emergency worker as they lifted him, there was no blood on the back of his head which is another good thing.

There’s also this photo which appears to show his left arm grabbing an emergency worker as well.

Warning shows picture of seriously injured driver

[acerogers58]

Watching the way the car gets turned reminds me of this from 2009, Busch’s car sat back down though and got drilled in the rear.

[SBan83]

Was just a matter of time. The amount of deliberate contact they make these days is ridiculous.

[Ian-S]

Yeah if they're not going to do anything about that they might want to consider moving all the start/finish gantries to behind the fence line, there's no need in this era to have it hanging over the track and that car was incredibly close to hitting the gantry too.

I can sympathise with NASCAR though, they've said time and again don't make us intervene and the drivers were told in the briefing keep it respectful and stop wrecking each other or we will step in, yet the drivers seem incapable of policing themselves when push comes to shove (both with the blocking and bumping), you never saw this type of driving in years past, it's almost as if the drivers have been lulled into some sort of false sense of security over safety.

[Matt]

I dip in and out of NASCAR so my surface knowledge is that they are continually fiddling with the super speedway package to make the races more entertaining, but if the result is what happened yesterday then the price is far, far too high. Cars were getting massive slingshots and piling into the car in front to bump them. It was madness.

Hopefully whatever Newman's injuries are he can heal up quickly so his daughters can get their Dad back and he can get on with life, whether that includes a return to racing or not.

[acerogers58]

Since the removal of the restrictor plate prior to the 2019 season, there has been 5 superspeedway races, resulting in 7 airborne crashes, There is 65 days until the next one on April 26, something must be done.

[SBan83]

Yeah if they're not going to do anything about that they might want to consider moving all the start/finish gantries to behind the fence line, there's no need in this era to have it hanging over the track and that car was incredibly close to hitting the gantry too.

I can sympathise with NASCAR though, they've said time and again don't make us intervene and the drivers were told in the briefing keep it respectful and stop wrecking each other or we will step in, yet the drivers seem incapable of policing themselves when push comes to shove (both with the blocking and bumping), you never saw this type of driving in years past, it's almost as if the drivers have been lulled into some sort of false sense of security over safety.

Yea, I too applauded NASCAR when back in 2010, they said they were going to reduce policing driving standards and allow drivers to 'have at it'. However, these past few years, the drivers have shown recklessness to the point where — and I'm amazed to even be saying this — I find the iRacing NASCAR DWC exhibiting far greater caution, despite being in the virtual world.

They need to find a balance and step in with the occasional driving standard penalties...because it seems these drivers care more about losing points than losing their life.

[Matt]

I think that's the main problem. I hate to use it as an example, but Suzuka 2014 and why we now have the virtual safety car. Kind of the same as the use/abuse of tarmac runoffs too. The only way you are going to stop drivers doing things these days is to actually stop them doing it with regulations.

[acerogers58]

I’d almost guarantee if Almirola’s back injury in 2017 happened at a superspeedway, they would of never removed the restrictor plates. There hasn’t been a fatality in a main NASCAR series in 19 years, and at this point everyone thinks no matter how bad the wreck they always walk away, a mentality that was likely spurred on by Austin Dillon being totally uninjured in that crash 5 years ago, but the fact is, no matter how safe you make cars, they can still be dangerous in the wrong type of situation. Clearly the “Earnhardt bar” is no longer enough, and they need to make further improvements in case a freak accident like this one occurs ever again. People don’t seem to remember that before speeds got lowered after Allison’s crash cars didn’t run in big packs like they do now.

People seem to of already forgotten Ty Majeski was also almost hit in the roof on Friday night in the truck series, with that impact thankfully happening in the front of his truck and not the roof.

[Ian-S]

They still have the plate as such, removing it made little difference to the power and top speed since it's all controlled electronically now. I agree mostly with what you say, but they don't need to make the cars even safer as history has taught us that just makes the drivers more flippant with danger, I don't know what the answer is but I don't think we want NASCAR going back to micromanaging the races.

There's a video on YT that documents the entire extraction process, basically the rollcage of the car had collapsed around him trapping him inside and they had to cut him out bit by bit, I guess time will tell over his injuries but he looked in a lot of pain and to cap things off they got him 50% out then had go start cutting the car up again leaving him hanging half in half out being held in place by some burley men, I can imagine he has crush injuries mostly.

There is also a super-super-super slow mo of the original slowmo someone has done and it actually looks like his seat broke because when the car spins sideways you can see his helmet through the window net, but after the car is hit and flips back over, you can see straight through and out the passenger window without problem.

This is all just my speculation though, could be total crap.

[Antonov]

this will certainly increase the viewing figures for NASCAR.

[PTRACER]

A more positive update:

I considered the same @Ian-S (that his seat might have broken). Only problem is, if he was floating around the car after being hit in the roof he wouldn't have survived the landing. He's probably more battered from the high G impacts.

[Ian-S]

Oh I dunno about that, I know someone that walked away from a crash (on the road) yonks ago because they wasn't wearing a seatbelt and someone else who crashed in the same spot a few weeks later in the same way got killed and to cap things off they both crashes the same model of car too.

[jimclark]

4 o'clock (eastern USA) report that Ryan was "awake and talking to family and doctors". Nothing about his injury(ies?) however. 'Still good news.

(reported on two different NASCAR shows on NBCSN and Fox Sports Network)