Texas Motor Speedway's Eddie Gossage On Ryan Newman Crash At Daytona 500

Betty, uh, just express your thoughts when you watch that last lap of the Daytona 500 and you see the accident involving Ryan Newman, that's awesome, I mean, it really is a scary, terrifying moment and you hope and pray that Ryan okay, he's a former winner here at Texas Motor Speedway and I'm telling you he's one of the toughest guys I've ever met in my life, but you know it was such a bad accident in the end, you know people that aren't in our sport when We say well, it was a racing agreement, I think we are not ruling it out at all, but you know at the end of the Daytona 500 those drivers have a gentlemen's agreement in a race, there is an agreement between them that that's it . man for himself and you know, obviously, no one wants to hurt anyone and no one wants to see anyone get hurt, but you know it's 200 miles an hour, it's an inherently dangerous sport, what do you think of the measures that NASCAR has taken in terms of security measures and Are you happy when we see something like this?

I don't think that has anything to do with the accident, but he is satisfied with the steps that have been taken. Well, you have to be pleased with the steps NASCAR is taking back to 19. Years ago we lost Dale Earnhardt Sr. in an accident and you know, we went through a period there in about two years where we lost two or three poor drivers. and changes were made to the construction of the car. to the energy absorbing materials used in the car and we also spend millions and millions of dollars putting up safer barriers at all the racetracks that NASCAR races on and we've gone a long time without really serious injuries and like I said, it's inherently In a dangerous sport, you are constantly redoing things trying to make the sport as safe as possible.

It's not always going to be safe when you're dealing with those kinds of speeds, but you keep learning every day and you try to improve things, and I think NASCAR deserves a lot of credit because it's a lot safer than it was 19 years ago when we had that horrible accident at Daytona. I asked you before, Etienne. The first thing I heard when we were watching replays was people who are old enough to remember. Including myself, they go back to Dale Earnhardt and they go back to 2001 in the Daytona 500 on the last lap, but you can explain that there are very different circumstances, yes, those are two completely different types of accidents.

Dale Earnhardt's accident and his turn into death occurred because his seat belt broke, had frayed against the seat frame, was in excessive use for who knows how long and was just carelessness on the part of him and his crew and It was a terrible price to pay tonight with Ryan. Newman is terrible in an accident much worse than Dale Earnhardt's, as they learned, it hurts you. Every time I see that accident, I get angry because we've seen that accident over and over again and people are perfectly fine, but this one like with Ryan was particularly ugly, another car that everyone was racing and bouncing off each other a little bit.

Next thing you know, he's in the air upside down, bouncing off the wall and into traffic and getting hit on the driver's side while upside down, so it's completely different circumstances, we just have to hope Ryan is good. He's told us that Ryan Newman won at Texas Motor Speedway before which sets him apart from other drivers as a person. Ryan is a very interesting guy, he has a degree in engineering. I think he's from Purdue, but he's from the Midwest. He's pretty amazing. He's the hardest guy to pass on the track. It doesn't matter if you're racing for the lead or if you're racing against him and he's two laps down.

He will make it. I'm sure you have to work really hard to get around him, you better be quick or he just won't stop and let you go, and you know, that's everyone knows about Ryan, from a personal point of view, he has two daughters, he has an animal and I don't know what to call it a shelter or is it a big animal operation that he owns and I know it's not just dogs and cats, I mean we're talking about all kinds of animals, he's just a big animal lover, so he's a good boy, one time I snuck up behind him and put my arms around him and it was like hugging a rock.

I mean, he's just beefy and strong and you know that's certainly going to help him, you know, fight off any injuries that he's suffered. In this accident, he is a tough guy, but he is in excellent physical condition. His general thoughts on this year's 500, whether the rain pushes them to Monday and then the second-closest finish in history and this race and then the

crash

at the end. Well, it was a The Daytona 500 is strange because it lasted two days. You know, it's a typical Daytona in the sense that it had one or two big

crash

es, which is the nature of the type of racing you have at Daytona and Talladega, two tracks that have different rules. because the track is so big, they use a different aero engine, it's completely different than any other race, their races, so you can do well at Daytona.

I might have a horrible rest of the season, you know that happens, but you know it's just a different type of race and of course with the grand prix at the end, there everyone, you know, the team owner will tell you, just put him back behind the wheel when he's done, you know, but go for it and everyone, everyone goes. for this reason and unfortunately you end up with accidents like tonight right at the end