Days After Horror Crash, Ryan Blaney Wonders What He Should Have Done Differently

On Monday night, the 2020 Daytona 500 finally got underway after a rain shower forced its postponement. Unfortunately, on the final lap of the race, Ryan Newman was involved in an almighty wreck and rushed to the hospital. Meanwhile, rival Ryan Blaney, who was also involved, has been filled with deep regret.

Blaney even confessed that he “replayed the events in [his] head over and over”. In hindsight, he wondered what he could have “done differently” to avoid a repeat.

Blaney revealed on Twitter that he met Newman after he was released from the hospital. The duo spoke about the accident and cleared the air between them. To make matters even better, Newman appeared to be in high spirits in spite of the crash.

In the dying stages of the race, Newman, Blaney and Denny Hamlin were duking it out for the win. Blaney was aware that he didn’t stand a chance, so he tried to bump-draft Newman, who was a fellow Ford driver. Since Newman was in the lead, Blaney tried to give him a push and draft him to victory.

The bad news that the well-intentioned move went horribly wrong and Newman’s No. 6 got turned around. The out-of control car, then hit the wall before an unsighted Corey LaJoie slammed into him. Newman went airborne, and his car landed on its roof and slid off the track in flames.

The alert marshals carefully extracted Newman and rushed him to hospital in “serious condition”. Fortunately, he recovered quickly and was released two days later.

In a Twitter post Thursday night, Blaney opened up on the crash and his brief conversation with Newman.

What did Ryan Blaney say after the race?

Immediately after the race, a visibly shaken Ryan Blaney told the media said spinning Newman was “definitely unintentional”. Blaney’s objective was to give Newman a huge push ahead of Hamlin. However, when Blaney tried to make a move for the lead, Newman successfully blocked him. So he changed tactics and tried to push a Ford to win over Hamlin’s Toyota:

Blaney concluded, “I was just committing to pushing him to the win once he blocked a couple times, was kind of beat. Just hope Ryan’s all right. It sucks to lose a race, but you never want to see anyone get hurt.”