Dale Earnhardt Jr. provides unique perspective on the Ryan Newman crash | Motorsports on NBC

Feb 20, 2020

I'm bringing our friend and booth colleague, Dale Earnhardt Jr. who won a couple of 500's in his career Jr. thanks for joining us play yeah it's good to be back so it was a crazy race a crazy finish we've kind of thought give us your opinion not only about the race but also about the accident and the announcements we've received recently about Ryan Newman on his health, well, I thought the race was very exciting, very cool, you know, a lot of movement and guys with different strategies and guys with different agendas, whether it's trying to go on stage. points or trying to put yourself in a better position to win the race and it was very engaging and entertaining, you know, we had a lot of our big

crash

es near the end of that race, that eliminated a lot of competition and really changed the whole complexity of the race. and we went into overtime, which, as you know, always increases the risk factor of an accident, and for a driver and for me personally I was very confident about what we were about to see and you know, I just knew that the factor The risk was very high, you know, you know, we saw the finish line and we saw the accident and I don't even think I knew at that time the seriousness of the accident.

There was so much going on in this that I didn't really understand everything that Ryan Newman had been through at that time and you know what I think, you know and since I had several hours to really reflect on a lot of different things and we have great news about Ryan and you know we can start to think about his future and his recovery and what that's going to look like and wait, wait is what we do, we wait for more information, we try to let you know, we try to make contact with the people close to Ryan to show our support and you will will communicate with those who are affected by the accident or involved in the accident to ensure that everyone is in as good a mood as possible at this time, but as much time has passed.

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dale earnhardt jr provides unique perspective on the ryan newman crash motorsports on nbc...

I really think about you. I was on the line listening. I'll talk about the reaction to a billion celebrating it. It was very unfortunate to come out of that because you know. I'll think back to 2001 when Dad. He had his accident and Michael Waltrip had made it to victory lane and he's celebrating what he feels like the most incredible moment of his life waiting for dad to go right into that victory lane at a moment to celebrate with him, like this which I think I can tell you, as a fan, that you know how that paddle process can happen, you know and how what happened with Vinny and his team can easily happen, and you know, there are many other similar situations that are very similar to that to compare.

That makes it understandable what happened with Vinny and his team, so you know, I found it interesting, but I can't stop thinking about Brian and I, you know, and I'm just waiting for more news, more information so that we can and when. when, when, when can we see him, you know, when can we physically talk to Ryan and you know, put our own eyes on him and have a chance to see how he's doing, you're one of the best super speed racers and you did that. just being extremely aggressive, so talk to us about how aggressive you have to be if you want to win the Daytona 500.

I always had the most success by always trying to lead the race and it is not physically possible to lead every lap, but if your mind and your mentality see that every minute of the race is trying to lead. I felt like that was the best defense against being involved in an accident or being called into something in the middle of the pack and I tried all the different ways of racing. those plate races and for me that was always the most effective approach and it starts when you show up to the race track, you have to be like that in practice and you have to go out there and maybe some people practice often that you are very aggressive, but you have to show them that this is how I'm going to race, but also, this is what my car can do, so when the green flag drops on you, you're going to see my car pull out, you're going to have confidence to follow it because you've seen what I can do it all weekend instead of when I approached the whole race that way and the weekend that way.

I really had a lot of success with it, sometimes I didn't. It doesn't always work and then you start thinking maybe I'll try a different route, maybe I'll sit in the back and try to take care of my stuff and it works until the end of the races, you know, you start. Trying different things and maybe thinking you need to reset your whole strategy, but I always end up going back and being aggressive and having a lot of success with it. The only problem with that is that it's hard to do, it's hard to force yourself to work on it. hard every foot of the track every straight every corner every opportunity every race the car has every chance you get to do something with that car it's hard to stay behind the wheel for the entire race because everyone is Point has to take a break in the middle of some kind of a mental break and I think you know the ones that go, you know the ones that can maintain that type of tenacity and in fierce, you know that the competitiveness throughout those races is successful, you see that the same guys at the front They were racist year after year.

I even said it before the end of the race, I mean Denny Hamlin, if he's not the winner, he's in the picture when they cross the finish line and a lot of these races at Daytona and Talladega and he showed it again, you know he's one To the best of my knowledge, I thought he didn't know if he had lost the race or not on the backstretch one way or another, he never gave up and wasn't going to win, he was pushing someone to win and he put himself back in the race. place. His situation where he ends up getting the checkered flag, so that attitude he never gave up, never stopped working to try to get to the front every inch of the track, I think is similar to Denny and what makes it so good, you mentioned it strongly. -attitude of working without ever giving up and you meet Dale as I watch the accident and since we both have press releases about Ryan's health, that's what caught my attention, you know, I look at Ryan Newman and that worker never gives up , tight guy and That's what I hope for on your road to recovery.

Here you race him on the track while watching him try to win a second Daytona 500. What do you think of Ryan Newman, the racing driver and person you know? He has a great nickname Rocketman and he got that nickname because he participated in more than ten surveys one year. It's kind of like everywhere when I remember when we went to Bristol Motor Speedway, this must be around 2003 and it broke the 15 and 14 second barrier in qualifying and you finished like 14.95 or something like that and no one had ever run that fast before and He seemed faster than anyone else, he was just always doing something super impressive early in his career.

I had a lot of good races with him at the racetrack, we raced pretty hard together at Phoenix to win there one year around 2004, we had some clashes, I left him out. I'll be back two years in a row in Atlanta and we had to have a conversation about it and he's a He's a big guy, he's an intimidating guy when you're outside the car talking about some of the booths that you put on the racetrack, but honestly, Every conversation I had with him about racing we were able to work it out, you know? If we ever had any kind of disagreement at the track, which is very rare, I could sit down and talk to Ryan and we would do it.

He was an understanding guy and I could see it from both sides, so I really appreciated that about him and him. He's not one to hold a grudge. I gave him plenty of opportunity to hold a grudge against me for quite some time, and racing drivers have a habit of doing that. He crossed them once you saw him on that list for the rest of your career. rival to the type of person who could forgive, forget and move on and has an extremely close relationship with Ryan, Martin Truex Jr and Miss Park are very close friends and I learned a lot about Ryan's vision and the friend he can be through that . relationship that he has with Martin and that really impressed me how close they became and how much time they shared with each other on race weekends fishing and hunting together and now you know, I was really impressed by the Renaissance or the Kind of new chapter in his career.

I didn't know things would get better for Ryan Cena when he moved into the sixth car when he moved away from RCR and like Roush, I didn't know if that was a lateral move or they just took a step back, I really wasn't sure what that meant. exactly and I'm a caveman. Ryan took the bite between his teeth, didn't he help improve that team by 10 or more places from the previous year and the performance across the board got into In the playoffs, no one was counting on them to achieve something like that and he He really took a personal interest in improving that team and making it better and showing people that he had something left in the tank.

I really appreciate that about him and him as a player. racing driver, obviously, we talked about how hard he made the pass and he wore it like a badge of honor, you know, and we were talking about it and everyone in the garage, everyone who went out on the track with him, knew that that was What When you faced Brian Newman, it was going to be difficult to pass him and he wasn't going to do anyone any favors on the track and I don't know, I think we all got to a point where we really appreciated that riding thing. especially being in the booth as an announcer.

I loved. I loved him because he could change the face of a race in the blink of an eye and you know, goodbye, racing, competing and doing the hard things, challenging people. He really made it fun. an announcer to swim in it, yes, there is no doubt that Ryan Newman was as tough as they say on the race track. I'm excited to call more races in the future, but Dale, thanks for your opinion. Hello