(Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images)
No one ever wants to get caught up in the “Big One,” especially in the Daytona 500.
Unfortunately, 16 cars suffered that fate Sunday night.
Ryan Newman was one of those involved in the crash. And the Roush Fenway Racing driver’s view of the wreck was caught on camera.
Ryan Newman's view of the crash:pic.twitter.com/naOnp93ONQ
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 14, 2021
The crash collected Ryan Newman, Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Daniel Suarez, Matt DiBenedetto, and Tyler Reddick, among others.
Seven cars have been confirmed out of the race: Almirola, Bowman, Suarez, Newman, Erik Jones, David Ragan, and Derrike Cope. Cope, the 1990 Daytona 500 winner, crashed on Lap 3 following an apparent tire failure.
“We were just getting pushed too hard too early,” Almirola said. “It’s a long, long race. Man, we were in a fine position, just sitting there riding around in the top two, three and the 20 (Bell) just came with a big run and hit me really hard in a bad spot and it turned me to the right and tore up our race car and ended our Daytona 500 way too early.”
Said Bowman: “It looks like (Almirola) kind of got turned sideways there and I was the guy that got ran into. … Hats off to everybody at Hendrick Motorsports; they built some really fast race cars. Hate that superspeedway racing works out that way sometimes, but that’s just part of the game.”
Byron had qualified on the front row alongside pole sitter Bowman, but gave up his second-place starting position after wrecking his primary car in Thursday’s Duel qualifying races.
He has tweeted that the damage to his backup car sustained in Sunday’s incident can be fixed.
Newman, who was making his Daytona 500 return one year after surviving a harrowing crash on the final lap, said he had nowhere to go.
“I had the wreck missed, but got hit from some place and that was the end of our day,” he said.