Ryan Newman hospitalized in horrific wreck as Hamlin wins Daytona 500

Denny Hamlin won his second straight Daytona 500 and third overall, beating Ryan Blaney in a photo finish marred by a terrifying crash that sent Ryan Newman to hospital on Monday.

Newman had surged into the lead on the final lap when Blaney’s bumper caught the back of his Ford and sent Newman into the wall. His car flipped, rolled, was hit on the driver’s side by another car, and finally skidded across the finish line engulfed in flames.

It took several minutes for his car to be rolled back onto its wheels. The 2008 Daytona 500 winner was placed in a waiting ambulance and taken directly to a hospital, and the damage to his Mustang was extensive. It appeared the entire roll cage designed to protect his head had caved.

After fellow drivers and fans across the sport were left with an excruciating wait to learn how gravely he was hurt, Nascar announced Newman was in serious condition with non-life-threatening injuries.

Drivers were stricken with concern in the immediate aftermath of the race, including a rattled Corey LaJoie, the driver who hit Newman’s car as it was flipping. “Dang I hope Newman is ok,” he posted on Twitter. “That is worst case scenario and I had nowhere to go but [into] smoke.”

Hamlin became the first driver since Sterling Marlin in 1995 to win consecutive Daytona 500s, but his celebration was subdued. “I think we take for granted sometimes how safe the cars are and number one, we are praying for Ryan,” said Hamlin, who was unaware of Newman’s situation when he initially began his celebration.

It wasn’t until Fox Sports told him they would not interview him on the frontstretch after his burnouts that Hamlin learned Newman’s crash was serious. “It’s a weird balance of excitement and happiness for yourself, but someone’s health and their family is bigger than any win in any sport,” he said. “We are just hoping for the best.”

Team owner Joe Gibbs apologized after the race for the winning team celebration.

“We didn’t know until victory lane,” Gibbs said. “I know that for a lot of us, participating in sports and being in things where there are some risks, in a way, that’s what they get excited about. Racing, we know what can happen, we just dream it doesn’t happen. We are all just praying now for the outcome on this.”

Runner-up Blaney said the way the final lap shook out, with Newman surging ahead of Hamlin, meant he was concentrating on helping Newman in a move of brand alliance for Ford.

“We pushed Newman there to the lead and then we got a push from the 11 ... I was committed to just pushing him to the win and having a Ford win it and got the bumpers hooked up wrong,” he said. “It looked bad.”

Hamlin had eight Ford drivers lined up behind him as the leader on the second overtime shootout without a single fellow Toyota driver in the vicinity to help him. It allowed Newman to get past him for the lead, but the bumping in the pack led to Newman’s hard turn right into the wall, followed by multiple rolls and a long skid across the finish line.

Monday’s race came after just the second rain postponement in 62 years on Sunday, when 11.2m viewers tuned in to Fox Sports to watch Donald Trump give the order to start the engines. The network said it was a 32% increase from the start of last year’s race and best since 2015.

The wreck wasn’t the first crash like this for Newman. His car went airborne and flipped repeatedly in the 2003 Daytona 500. He landed on his roof in that one and did again at Talladega in 2009.

He’s been a harsh critic of Nascar’s struggles to keep cars on the ground, even getting fined for public comments the sanctioning body considered negative. In 2010, he said fans shouldn’t even go to the track to see races at Talladega.