Motor Racing Network’s Woody Cain catches up with Ryan Newman prior to the The Real Heroes 400 at Darlington Raceway. Sunday’s race will mark Newman’s first race back after recovering from injuries sustained in the season-opening Daytona 500. The interview is also currently on MRN Outloud and parts will be featured in the MRN pre-race show on Sunday, which starts at 2:30 p.m. ET.
Q: Ryan, I guess there is probably not a sweeter sentence that you have heard in a while then going racing this Sunday. You have to be more than even the other guys, I guess, chomping at the bit to get back at it, don’t you?
Newman: Well, I am and multiple ways like you said. I’ve been waiting to race for a while and that’s separate of the virus situation. It’s a great opportunity for us. I know as a whole, the racing world has collectively got together, even the short-track world, has got together to put some shows on and make a difference and give something for our fans to re-connect with as we have gone through this two months of world shut down.
Q: Let’s back up a little bit further. Everybody has seen by now your terrible crash at Daytona, but I don’t know if you know this or not I was looking around and there is actually a Ryan Newman YouTube crash compilation. So I went back and thought no that one was not nearly as bad. No, that was not nearly as close. How much did this one hurt compared to some of them that you’ve been through because anybody who’s been in this a while has had some bad crashes.
Newman: Yeah, this one hurt so bad I don’t remember it. I got knocked out and somebody hit the delete button on my memory card. So it’s unfortunate, but at the same time it is fortunate because I don’t think it’s something I necessarily do want to remember and I think God or whoever controls that part of the world as far as not remembering certain things did that to protect me and always give me the opportunity to remember the good things of what I do and enjoying racing and not always the bad things.
Q: You’ve had some where you’ve gotten on your lid at superspeedways. I saw one that looked just really painful at Watkins Glen several years ago. How sore were you after the fact compared to some of those other incidents?
Newman: My left shoulder was really sore. I think I took a pretty good shot on the left side of my body from Corey’s (Lajoie) car. So that hurt for quite a while and it hurt more so than anything I had head trauma wise. I literally felt fine in the head. I just had a sore collarbone and no broken bones, but just was kind of beat up. Felt like I was fully capable of racing, but obviously the world shut down and that gave me some more time to heal.
Q: I guess there is a bright side to everything if you look hard enough, but it seems like more and more NASCAR is using the data and input from other drivers and teams to move the safety situation forward and I’m sure that they’ve done that with you. Is that correct, they talked to you about what happened?
Newman: Yeah, I’ve had more conversations after this crash than I have probably collectively over the last 18 years, 19 years together about the safety of our sport. I’m happy they’re being proactive about it. Some of its reactive but they’re also being proactive for the future by adding bars and talking about different things we could do with our window nets. For me personally, some of the things we can do with the safety crew and what difference we can make with the testing processes to have a better understanding of where you stand with your prior life and your health before you ever turn a lap to start a season like I did in Daytona. So, it’s been good. Unfortunately, it comes from a bad situation, but at the same time I have the opportunity to make good of that bad situation.
Q: Speaking of help, that’s something everybody’s concerned about right now with the coronavirus and this will be a whole different world for us at Darlington to kick things back off this weekend with all the screening and social distancing going on. You’ve been at races before where you had to go on a Monday on a green track and there weren’t many people around, but this is completely different. Have you thought much about how strange this is going to feel or is it just more eager to get back at it?
Newman: Both. It is going to be strange but definitely a lot of eagerness to. When I do see somebody it’s going to be hard and awkward because I haven’t seen them for eight weeks or more because of my accident. To walk up and not shake their hands because it is the human natural thing to do. We’re not necessarily allowed to do those things and that’s just not my personality. So there will be challenges that go along with what we do on Sunday, but once I get strapped into the race car, I’ll be ready for those challenges.
Q: Speaking of that. No practice. No qualifying. No nothing. The first time you’ll be in the race car is during pace laps before you get the green flag and everybody storms off into Turn 1 on a really green racetrack. Is it going to be tiptoe time or do you think somebody’s going to go Bonsai into there and get a little wild right off the bat?
Newman: It’s going to be tiptoe time. There’s always somebody that goes Bonsai and in there. You just got to kind of figure out based on the way somebody scrubbing their tires or playing with their throttle before the green flag drops who that somebody might be.
Q: This will be your 22nd race at Darlington. So you and a lot of the other guys have been through many different situations there. It’s going to be very warm but with some of that experience. What do you expect the track to do? Obviously, this is a little bit of an unknown and we are running on the same tire we did a year ago. How do you expect the track to evolve through the course of the race?
Newman: I think it’ll rubber up for sure. As it rubbers up the tire wear gets better. The track is going to change a little bit. Will have to adjust, I’m sure. We’ll have to adjust like we do in practice as we figure out what we need to do to make our cars drive and feel better, but we’re only going to be limited to so many things that we can do as we do that. NASCAR’s aware of what we need to do to put on the best show from a competitor standpoint because we’ve told them, but at the same time the show must go on and we have to make sure that we’re prepared as best we can.
Q: NASCAR has granted you a playoff exemption despite missing the races and that’s happened before when guys have been injured. But how confident are you that the 6 team can make the playoffs again?
Newman: Well, we proved in Daytona that we were capable if not real close to winning and we have plenty of opportunities to do that. I mean the virus played to my favor with having more time to heal, but I still did miss several races. So I feel like I have the opportunity, mathematically. I’m thankful that NASCAR granted us that waiver as I felt like that it would be of their best interest as well. But at the same time we’ve got to go out there and perform and have some fun in performing. Hopefully if we can’t point our way in we can win our way in and then point our way in.
Q: A lot of you guys when you came up in the racing world started off where you would race several times a week. It looks like that’s what the schedule is going to play out like here as NASCAR tries to get back on track and get the schedule back on track. Is that something that concerns you at or is it just the adrenaline’s going to let you push right through it because typically guys say it takes a couple days to stop being sore after a really physical race?
Newman: No, I think there’s a lot of us, not everyone of us, but there’s a lot of us that carry the bumper sticker on our cars that says, “have helmet will race.” I’ll be ready on what Sunday and I’ll be ready on Wednesday and if we raced on Thursday morning, I’d be ready again then to. I mean obviously if you get in an accident and you’re sore, that’s one thing. The adrenaline is an amazing thing that you go through when you compete in the sport like this and it will take care of us.
Q: Have you done some things that you didn’t think you would ever find yourself doing while we were in this shutdown situation?
Newman: Cooking a lot more food I can tell you that’s a fact. Burgers on the grill. I’ve got my own beef cows and so burgers on the grill are an easy thing to do and the kids definitely enjoy homemade french fries. My grandma taught me how to make french fries when I was a kid and some reason I’ve mastered it the last few months here. I have enjoyed a lot of time with my kids. I have enjoyed a lot of time at the farm working on some old cars and things like that, but definitely still miss what was normal the racing life and we will, I’m hoping at some point, get back to that full green flag. Not just a caution flag.
Q: Can you tell me Grandma’s french fries secret?
Newman: Oh, it’s easy. It’s like anything else when you cook. You’ve got to you got to prepare it right and cook it right. I use russet potatoes. It’s the way I slice them and just makes my style a french fry. It’s not a steak fry, it’s not a shoestring fry. Then I use Mazola corn oil mostly because I got it for free, but it does cook really well. Actually I use a turkey fryer and pull them out with a basket and then that’s it. It’s just a matter of having the right temperature, which I couldn’t even tell you. I don’t use a thermometer. I drop a french fry in check the temperature and if it bubbles they’re ready.
Q: What’s new with the Rescue Ranch? How are things going there? I saw a lot of social media it seems like a lot of folks are helping out as best they can during this time.
Newman: Yeah, we’ve done a few videos and raised some awareness. It was really tough for us because it is a social activity to come out and have educational classes and groups at the ranch. So having all those things shut down but yet the overhead in the responsibility of feeding the animals and not having the income as we had planned was tough. So we appreciate everybody’s support and will always appreciate their support as much as they can help in many ways. Come out and see what we do and if you can contribute we appreciate that but it’s all about animal education and kids to which obviously has changed as schooling has changed. To eventually have it back open up for birthday parties and summer camps and things like that. We look forward to that opportunity.
