NASCAR Driver Ryan Newman Shows His Destroyed 2020 Daytona 500 Car During Sponsor Event

By Jerry Jordan, Editor

The car that “saved” his life, according to NASCAR driver Ryan Newman is now part of his personal car collection housed in a garage at his home, he told a group of Wyndham Rewards members Wednesday during a video event.

Newman said he had never shown anyone the No. 6 Koch Ford Mustang that he almost won the 2020 Daytona 500 with for Roush Fenway Racing.

“I’ve never done this but I am going to show you something, just for a split-second,” Newman told NASCAR announcer/pit reporter Matt Yocum, who was hosting a Zoom event as part of a “fireside chat” by Wyndham Hotels for its Wyndham Rewards members.

“This is the Daytona car from last year,” Newman said. “That’s all I am going to show you because I have never showed anyone else but my point is this, people ask me, ‘why do you have it’ or ‘why would you want that, it’s such a bad memory?’

“And it is not, to me, it’s a memory that changed my life in lots of ways but ultimately, people ask me, ‘like why would you have it,’ and I am like, how many chances do you have to have a trophy of something that saved your life. And I could go through the details and show you the cage and the seat and all that stuff. It’s crazy, I shouldn’t be standing here talking to ya’ll. I should NOT, promise you, but for some reason, I was salvaged that day and it’s special for me. It’s a disaster. Nothing on it is worth anything, except everything it’s worth something. And that is pretty special for me.”

Newman also showed off several other cars in his garage, including the first car he ever owned, a 1974 Triumph TR6 that belonged to his grandfather, but it was the reveal of the Daytona 500 car that, no doubt, surprised everyone on the call.

Newman previously told ESPN’s Ryan McGee that he had the car but didn’t let anyone photograph or video it.

Newman said of the crash that he doesn’t remember any part of the day except having shrimp for lunch at his parents’ house about 20-miles from Daytona. The rest is blank. But he added that everything happens for a reason. In looking at the video of the crash, he said, “I don’t know why my car turned so hard to the right when Blaney was trying to push me. It doesn’t make sense. Physically, it just doesn’t happen that often. You have to go back 20 years to Dale Earnhardt’s crash to see a car turn to the right that quick, that fast, with a car pushing it.”

Reflecting on his career, Newman said he is “pretty satisfied, I’ve lost way more than I have won but there’s a lot of other people out there that have never won.” That said, he isn’t looking to retire from racing anytime soon and continues to love what he does.

Newman said he is most amazed by being the most Googled search of 2020 for the photo showing him walking out of the hospital with his two daughters.

“I know there are way more followed people in sports, I didn’t win any races (that year) so that was unique,” he said. “It just tells you how powerful moments like that are and how many good people and genuine people there are out there who appreciate a dad walking out of a hospital with his daughters hand-in-hand and that’s really special.”

Ryan Newman has been treated and released from Halifax Medical Center pic.twitter.com/J0twhGgQm7

— RFK Racing (@RFKracing) February 19, 2020