Ryan Newman meets with NASCAR officials in effort to learn from scary wreck at Talladega

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FORT WORTH, Texas. - Stewart-Haas Racing's Ryan Newman met with NASCAR officials Wednesday to discuss his crash during Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway and potential changes that could prevent similar incidents.
 
Newman's car went airborne following contact in the closing laps, landed on Kevin Harvick's Chevrolet, slid off that and across the track. As it slid back down the track, Newman's car flipped again and he landed on his roof in the infield grass. Newman's car had to be turned over and then the roof was cut off to remove the driver.
 
Newman, who has repeatedly pointed out the need to prevent similar incidents over the past few months after others flipped in recent races on restrictor-plate tracks, said he requested the chance to talk with officials - and that he was pleased with the meeting.
 
He met with Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton and Sprint Cup Director John Darby to dissect the crash and learn about testing officials have done in an effort to prevent the cars from leaving the ground in crashes.
 
Newman, who has an engineering degree from Purdue University, said that testing will need to be done to determine what type of change would work the best, especially since each crash is unique. He said that he obviously feels like there are things that can and should be done.
 
"From an aerodynamic standpoint, ultimately our biggest thing is to keep the race cars on the ground," Newman said Friday at Texas Motor Speedway. "Crashes have always been a part of racing. There are fans that like that. Sometimes that adds to extra excitement, don't get me wrong, when we can bounce off each other, get the car fixed, go back out and try to win a race, I understand that part of it. 
 
"Keeping the race cars on the ground is how we keep the drivers and especially the fans safe.  So that's the one thing."
 
He pointed out that it was ironic that he had been discussing the same thing after the Talladega race earlier this year, an event in which contact between Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski sent Edwards onto Newman's car and then into the catch fence.
 
He says that added to his frustration following his own incident last weekend.
 
As to what specifically can be done, Newman says that more study and input will be needed before NASCAR can determine the best solution.

"From an engineering standpoint, whatever we can do speed-wise and aerodynamically to keep the cars on the ground, in particular things in the back of the car, when it sees the air first for downforce, keep the lift out of the back of the cars is what we need to focus on," Newman said. " There has been testing done. I learned some of that stuff on Wednesday morning talking to Mr. Darby and Mr. Pemberton, that they have tested. 
 
"But I don't know that they have tested everything. I don't know that you can test everything. But obviously more testing needs to be done in order to make it safer for everybody. Speed is a part of it. The faster you go, the more likely you are to take lift.  We were talking before, an airplane takes off at 160 miles an hour. We're 40 miles an hour above that at times. There's plenty of potential for a car to take lift, whether it's going forwards, backwards or sideways. We have to take everything into consideration, as drivers, as teams, as a sanctioning body, to control that situation."
 
Newman said that a spoiler could be a part of the solution, but would not be all of it. After all, Nationwide cars have also flipped and they do have the spoiler. He was also asked about the impact the wing might have had on the incident, but wasn’t speculating on specific aspects. 

“My point from our conversation is ‘Do you think?’ is not the answer,” Newman said. “We have to do testing so that we know.”
 
There are things that might seem to be easy fixes, but then lead to other issues. Or there could be a series of changes needed. That's what the teams and NASCAR need to work together to figure out, Newman says.
 
He added that he was pleased with the safety crews efforts and had no complaints concerning his extrication from the car.
 
He was, however, a little concerned with the way the roll cage reacted in the car as it came down into the driver's cockpit.
 
"When I had 3,400 pounds come down basically on my head, I never was compressed physically in the car," Newman said. " … It's just like a head-on collision.  When two cars hit head on, you have the force of both. I had the force of me going up in the car while the car was coming down on me, so I was compressed. My spine was compressed, but I never was compressed to the point that it pushed my butt down into the seat. There was an instantaneous load there that hurt, don't get me wrong, I'm still sore from it, but I was never wedged."
 
He said that once the car was turned upright, he had room to take his helmet off. But he does think that the crash warrants study into what happened there.
 
"I know it was a heck of a hit, don't get me wrong," Newman said. "We've got to be able to learn from that. Whatever we might be able to do from a welding standpoint, from a wall thickness standpoint with the tubing, to make it stronger so that doesn't happen again is equally as important from a safety standpoint."
 
The series returns to the track April 25 for its next Cup event. Newman says that there are definitely changes that can be made between now and then, especially based on both Newman and Mark Martin flipping in the recent Talladega race and Edwards' incident earlier this season.
 
"Aerodynamically there are things that need to be done to keep the cars on the ground," he said. " I said that six months ago. Six months is plenty of time to make those changes. 
 
"The important thing is to make the right changes, to do the testing, the best of our capabilities with the tools that we have, meaning wind tunnels, modeling, things like that, to make the difference, make the right difference."