“I was medically treated to not know (about my condition.) They were trying to keep me in a somewhat of a medically-induced coma from what I’ve been told, and that medicine kind of zoned me out, so I really don’t have any memories or recollection of any of my crash until I actually had my arms around my daughters walking out of the hospital,” Newman said during a news conference on Thursday.
On Thursday, he told reporters he watched video of his crash after he left the hospital and couldn’t believe it.
“I watched the crash and had to make myself believe what I had went through,” Newman said. “I really looked to my dad to say, ‘Hey, did this really happen?’ Like it was kind of there’s no déjà vu when there’s no deja. It was just kind of like, ‘All right, I believe you.’ It’s crazy. I’m happy I’m here.”
Newman was asked about what happened inside the car that allowed him to survive, and he credited “the safety of the race car, the safety of my helmet, my equipment.”
“They always say things happen for a reason and this year was the year,” Newman said. “It’s only the fourth race I had on a brand new style of helmet — it’s a carbon fiber zero helmet that I was wearing — the second time I’d worn it in Cup competition.”
He also gave credit to the crew that helped retrieve him from the crushed car.
“Everything aligned in so many ways,” he said.
“The safety workers, the personnel that were involved, that were inside the car with me, spent time with me during and after the crash, every layer of it there was multiple miracles — big miracles and little miracles, in my opinion — that aligned for me to be able to walk out days later with my hands around my daughters and to be thankful, so I can’t answer all of those things and I don’t think anybody can when miracles do happen, but we need to be thankful for that — at least I am.”
Making his racing return
NASCAR returns to race action in Darlington, the site of Newman’s favorite race track, and this will be his first race since his crash at Daytona. Newman will make his 22nd Cup Series start at Darlington on Sunday, a track he has 13 top-10s at with seven top-five finishes.
CNN’s Christina Maxouris and Kevin Dotson contributed to this report.