Daytona 500 Crash Sends Ryan Newman to the Hospital
NASCAR veteran Ryan Newman crashed and flipped in a fiery wreck to end the Daytona 500 that sent the racer to the hospital on Monday night (Feb. 17).
Newman's team has issued a statement that describes his injuries as “not life threatening,” however the 42-year-old driver is in serious condition at Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach, Fla.
The nature of his injuries were not described in his team's statement. It took crews 10 minutes to get him out of the car, which caught fire after flipping and sliding several hundred feet on its roof:
Newman, Ryan Blaney, eventual winner Denny Hamlin and others were jockeying for position during the last lap when Blaney and Newman touched coming off turn four. Newman was in the lead, but Blaney's bump spun him into the wall, where the No. 6 car flipped. He was then hit by Cody LaJoi’s car at full speed, which pushed him down the front stretch. NBC Sports points out that fuel looked to be pouring out of the vehicle as crews arrived.
Newman is a well-known and respected driver in NASCAR’s top series, having raced since 2002. He has 18 career wins, including the 2008 Daytona 500. Several country stars offered words of prayer and support in the moments that followed the crash, which aired one day later due to rain on Sunday in Florida.
Fox analyst and former NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon summed up the emotions of the accident afterward, saying, "Safety has come a long way in this sport, but sometimes we are reminded that it is a very dangerous sport. Thoughts and prayers right now are with Ryan Newman and his family.”
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