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Steve Newmark, president, Roush Fenway Racing, held a Q&A session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this morning to read a statement from Ryan Newman and talk about Monday\u2019s accident at Daytona International Speedway.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n STEVE NEWMARK, President, Roush Fenway Racing \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cI appreciate all you guys being here today.\u00a0 Ryan apologizes for not being able to be here, but he did prepare a statement:<\/p>\n RYAN NEWMAN STATEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sorry that I can\u2019t be at the track in person, but I asked Steve to take a moment to express my sincere appreciation and gratitude for all the support that was shown last week to both me and my family.\u00a0 The outpouring of emotion from not only the NASCAR community, but across the country has been truly humbling.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to personally thank everyone, including the man upstairs, for their support, encouragement and the numerous offers of assistance.\u00a0 We always say that the NASCAR community is one big family and never has that been more evident to me than after seeing this family rally together and provide the comfort and support that has been shown to my family and me over the past few days.\u00a0 The calls and visits from the NASCAR executives and my friends and competitors has been truly uplifting.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to thank everyone involved in my care, especially the staff at Halifax Medical Center, where I am convinced I received the best care available.\u00a0 I\u2019m confident the efforts of each of those trained professionals played a major role in where I\u2019m sitting today.\u00a0 And to the entire NASCAR organization, led by Jim France, thanks for being by my side the entire time.\u00a0 You truly stepped up to support me unconditionally when it mattered most.<\/p>\n \u201cMost importantly, I have to thank the guys back at the Roush Fenway Racing shop that built me a car not only fast enough to lead the final seconds of the Daytona 500, but strong enough to do its job under great distress, allowing me to survive such an accident.\u00a0 I am truly indebted to each of you and it is unlikely I will ever be able to properly express to you how much the diligent effort with which you conduct your craftmanship has affected me and my family.\u00a0 I hope you took pride in the photograph of me walking out of the hospital hand-in-hand with my daughters on Wednesday.\u00a0 Thank you.\u00a0 I can\u2019t wait to get back in your race car.<\/p>\n \u201cI was fortunate to avoid any internal organ damage or broken bones.\u00a0 I did sustain a head injury for which I\u2019m currently being treated.\u00a0 The doctors have been pleased with my progression over the last few days.<\/p>\n \u201cAgain, I want to thank each of you, from my partners, teammates and competitors and each and every fan across the country.\u00a0 Thank you everyone for the unparalleled concern and unwavering support.\u00a0 And to the media, who has acted with such respect and class during this time.<\/p>\n \u201cI have spoken with Jack Roush and he has assured me that the number six car will be waiting and ready for my return.\u00a0 I\u2019m looking forward to getting behind the wheel and battling for another race win in the Roush Fenway Ford.\u201d<\/p>\n STEVE NEWMARK CONTINUED<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI also spoke to Ryan just before I came on here and in talking to him he wanted to reiterate to me again that his goals for this year haven\u2019t changed.\u00a0 His objective is to win the 2020 Cup championship, so hopefully that gives you a little insight into his mindset.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I\u2019d like to do now is give you a little perspective from Roush Fenway, so I\u2019m going to piggyback a little bit on the themes that Ryan touched upon in his statement.\u00a0 We\u2019ll probably have a little repetition, but I think that\u2019s probably appropriate based on the support that we\u2019ve received over the last few days.<\/p>\n \u201cI think everybody understands that the events of Monday and the days that followed it was really kind of a surreal experience for the entire Roush Fenway organization, and probably fit right in to the definition of an emotional rollercoaster.\u00a0 We went from what we thought was seconds away from winning the Daytona 500 with Ryan, locking into the playoffs, and also having our other car \u2013 the 17 Fastenal Ford finish fourth in Chris Buescher\u2019s first race with us.\u00a0 It was looking like it was gonna be a storybook race for us and a great start to the season and all of that changed in an instant, and we go from not caring about the race, not caring about the competition, in fact I\u2019m not sure that we knew who had actually won the race until a few hours later because the whole later was on Ryan\u2019s safety and well-being.\u00a0 When you see a teammate and a friend and part of your family in that situation.<\/p>\n \u201cSo during that process, obviously, Ryan mentioned the gratitude he had toward the Halifax Medical Center.\u00a0 I also want to recognize another group that was an anchor to us during the entire time and that\u2019s the NASCAR leadership team.\u00a0 When we arrived at the hospital that night, NASCAR with Matt Humphrey was already there coordinating logistics.\u00a0 And then during that entire period, so that evening and the days that followed, Jim France, Lesa France, Mike Helton, Steve Phelps, Steve O\u2019Donnell, Eric Nyquist, and Ben Kennedy were either there at the hospital or providing support in whatever way we needed.\u00a0 I know that really lifted the spirits of Ryan\u2019s family and our entire team to see that, and I think it speaks to the caliber of people that they are when you look at the lengths that they went to support us, and it also gives a lot of faith that we\u2019re in pretty good hands going forward.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the Roush Fenway organization, it was a pretty agonizing few days.\u00a0 Obviously, a brutal period that night as we had a lot of our team members down at the end of pit road, just feet from where the accident finished.\u00a0 There was obviously a lot of uncertainty at that point and I can tell you to a person on the corporate side and the competition side there wasn\u2019t a single one at Roush Fenway that actually wanted to go home that night.\u00a0 In fact, if we had acquiesced to their wishes, they would have camped out at the hospital waiting until they could actually see Ryan with their own two eyes.<\/p>\n \u201cThankfully, they kind of relented and reluctantly went back because we still had a job to do, and it was a pretty Herculean task for that organization this week.\u00a0 What we had was a short week to get to the west coast because of the rain delay, and then we also had the uncertainty of who was gonna drive the 6 car, how do you upfit it?\u00a0 How do you get the right seat in that?\u00a0 So they flew home that night, were back in the shop at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday morning and then we basically worked 24-hour shifts so we could be here.\u00a0 I think the results speak for themselves in that we feel like we\u2019ve got two pretty fast race cars, and it\u2019s a tremendous testament to the effort, the work ethic and the passion that whole group showed.\u00a0 I\u2019m extremely proud to be associated with that organization and that group of individuals.<\/p>\n \u201cI also want to thank our partners for their overwhelming and number of reach outs that we received for assistance.\u00a0 As some of you are aware, Koch Industries was on the car with Ryan in the Daytona 500.\u00a0 That was their first foray into NASCAR, so pretty interesting introduction as they come in and get the emotional highs and lows in a compressed period of about 30 seconds.\u00a0 But when we look at what happened over the next few days with Koch Industries, Castrol, Acronis, Wyndham, Oscar Mayer, Coca-Cola, Fastenal, Fifth Third, SunnyD and Ford \u2013 all just relentlessly giving us offers for assistance, trying to help Ryan, trying to help his family.\u00a0 It made us just recognize how blessed we were to have such a good partner group.<\/p>\n \u201cSimilarly, we received all sorts of reach outs from other drivers, a lot of the drivers visited Ryan, other team owners, team presidents and just across the industry.\u00a0 I do need to take a minute to give a special thanks to Chip Ganassi and Jim Campbell at Chevy for allowing us to put Ross Chastain in the car.\u00a0 Once we understood where Ryan\u2019s condition was and it wasn\u2019t life threatening, we obviously had to shift to try to at least make sure that we continued to race and have this season move forward.\u00a0 So Tuesday morning I called both Chip and Jim to ask for their permission.\u00a0 I will tell you that they were very short conversations because both of them immediately said, \u2018You have our blessing,\u2019 and offered unequivocally and support that they could provide to help us through this situation.\u00a0 We also talked to Kaulig Racing and Ross\u2019 agent to put this together.<\/p>\n \u201cTo me, we talk about NASCAR being one big family and that was a pretty big testament to it is that each of them put the personal above the professional and we were in a tough situation and it was nice to see our competitors step up and help us in that situation.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the team front, I also do want to address any lingering criticisms of Joe Gibbs Racing.\u00a0 From my perspective, they did absolutely nothing wrong.\u00a0 They had just won the Daytona 500, which should be a celebratory time, and I know that the minute they were informed that Ryan\u2019s situation was severe, he hadn\u2019t gotten out of the car, that they completely stopped and started praying for him.\u00a0 Denny came to the hospital that night.\u00a0 I heard from coach Gibbs.\u00a0 We heard from Dave Alpern and so we really appreciate the respect that they showed him and it\u2019s nothing that I wouldn\u2019t expect from an organization with that integrity and that level of class.<\/p>\n \u201cLastly, and then we can get to some questions, I really do want to thank the media.\u00a0 I received a number of emails, texts, reach outs from many of you here today that were reaching out, not as news reporters, but as friends and individuals generally concerned about the well-being of a member of the NASCAR community.\u00a0 Although we tried to do our best to get you guys updates, we fully recognize that there were a lot of gaps in those updates and that in this day and age of instant communication, social media, that there was immense pressure on most of you out there to fill those gaps with speculation, conjecture, wild theories, and the reality of it is the regular NASCAR reporters didn\u2019t do that and we really appreciate the respect you showed us and how you approached the whole situation.\u201d<\/p>\n QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION:<\/strong><\/p>\n CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE PROCESS OF GETTING ROSS IN THE CAR AND TO GET HIS SEAT FITTED?\u00a0 IS HIS SITUATION OPEN ENDED WITH YOU?\u00a0 \u201cThe situation unfolded is that when we were at the hospital that evening there was actually no discussion at that point because that wasn\u2019t the focus.\u00a0 You were 100 percent trying to support the family and just all of us were concerned about Ryan\u2019s situation at that point.\u00a0 Once we had learned of his status through his dad from the doctors, there was a group of us \u2013 Jack Roush, Kevin Kidd, Tommy Wheeler, Scott Graves, myself and Mark Rushbrook from Ford has a conversation about what was the right direction to go, and the first call that Kevin Kidd and I made was to Ross Chastain the next morning, along with Jim and Chip.\u00a0 At this point, I would say it\u2019s open ended because, I\u2019ll answer another question that I\u2019m sure will come up, is we don\u2019t have a timetable for Ryan\u2019s return.\u00a0 I can tell you what his timetable would like to be, which is soon as possible, but there\u2019s some other hoops that he\u2019s got to jump through before that happens.\u00a0 Right now, we\u2019re just taking it one race at a time.\u00a0 Our arrangement with Ross is if we need him, he should be available.\u201d<\/p>\n WHAT PROCESS DOES THE TEAM AND RYAN HAVE TO GO THROUGH FOR HIM TO GAIN CLEARANCE?\u00a0 \u201cThe first thing I would say is that I\u2019m thankful that we\u2019re actually even able to have this dialogue about that question because that was not something any of us were certain about when this happened, so it\u2019s a great conversation to be having.\u00a0 The reality is there are three groups that are going to dictate when he returns because he has expressed unequivocally that this is where he wants to be and he wants to be back in a race car.\u00a0 Those three groups are gonna be Ryan and his family, his doctors, and then NASCAR and their medical team.\u00a0 Our assumption is once all three of those sign off, then we\u2019ll see him back in a race car.\u201d<\/p>\n CAN YOU ADDRESS JACK\u2019S REACTION TO THIS?\u00a0 \u201cI was with Jack.\u00a0 Jack and I were in the 17 pit box and it was actually an interesting way that it played out.\u00a0 When the incident happened, we were watching on the screen and then we started to go down towards the end of pit road where the car was.\u00a0 On our way down there we were told Ryan is out of the car and he\u2019s in an ambulance heading to the hospital, so we actually took a hard left and didn\u2019t go down to where the car was, which was probably fine because we weren\u2019t gonna do anything helpful or contribute anything anyways, but we went straight to the hospital.\u00a0 We actually got to the hospital and had to grab a police officer on a motorcycle when we were trying to get out of the track because we were stuck and he gave us a nice opening and ride to the hospital.\u00a0 We got there.\u00a0 Matt Humphrey was there already coordinating logistics.\u00a0 Mike Helton showed up soon after, but we were actually there before Ryan got there and Jack\u2019s focus the whole time was we need to kind of more crisis mode, we need to make sure we\u2019re supporting the family, we need to make sure everything is arranged at the hospital, does he have all the medical care.\u00a0 That was really the dialogue throughout the night and then, quite frankly, we were on pins and needles as I\u2019m sure many of you were waiting for that first indication that it wasn\u2019t life threatening.\u00a0 The way that it played out is the doctors spoke with Greg Newman, Ryan\u2019s dad, and then Greg immediately conveyed that to us and then probably within a minute after that is when we put out the statement just to make sure that the fans understood that as well.\u201d<\/p>\n WHAT\u2019S THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE HAVING SOMEONE DIFFERENT IN THE CAR?\u00a0 CAN RYAN HELP BEING AWAY?\u00a0 \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that there are challenges, but I think the sense of relief and the wave of relief that\u2019s kind of gone over our organization makes you recognize that these challenges pale in comparison to other challenges that we could have faced, so I really do think you\u2019ve seen everyone step up.\u00a0 You had challenges of changing the seat, and there\u2019s no doubt that when you look at Ross\u2019 situation it\u2019s tough situation.\u00a0 He\u2019s running three series this weekend.\u00a0 He\u2019s never been in any of our cars, but we thought he was the right person to do it and had the right demeanor and the right character to be able to handle this.\u00a0 As for Ryan, he\u2019s already been involved.\u00a0 He was on the phone with Scott Graves, his crew chief, calling him because I think he was watching practice.\u00a0 I believe he\u2019s talked to Ross, so he has been very active in trying to be involved in the direction of the team.\u201d<\/p>\n DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA OF THE SITUATION WAS DIRE OR WAS IT CLEAR THE INJURIES WERE NOT LIFE THREATENING AT THE TIME YOU GOT TO THE HOSPITAL?\u00a0 \u201cThe first indication we got is what we passed along, that he was in serious condition and it wasn\u2019t life threatening.\u00a0 As you can probably appreciate, I can\u2019t get into the medical conditions because if HIPAA and other medical privacy laws, but the other piece of it is Ryan actually wants to be the one in front of you to answer those questions.\u00a0 He and I talked about that and he\u2019s kind of chomping at the bit to get back here and I think he feels that would be most appropriate for him to be behind the mic answering a lot of those questions.\u201d<\/p>\n HAS HE SAID ANYTIHNG ABOUT CHANGES HE WOULD WANT TO THE CAR OR RACING AT DAYTONA AND TALLADEGA?\u00a0 \u201cHe hasn\u2019t specifically.\u00a0 We haven\u2019t discussed that.\u00a0 He knows that he\u2019s gonna get access.\u00a0 The people of NASCAR have been phenomenal.\u00a0 They\u2019ve given access to our organization, our engineers to go over and look at the car, offered it to Ryan.\u00a0 I think everybody in here knows that Ryan has been an advocate of driver safety for many years.\u00a0 He uses his engineering degree and is very vocal, so I have no doubt that he\u2019ll be in the middle of that.\u00a0 It\u2019s an ongoing effort to continue to improve the safety, but from my perspective it\u2019s a testament to the safety that less than 48 hours he was able to walk away after that accident and the reality is most sports have injury reports every week.\u00a0 The reason we don\u2019t is that it\u2019s pretty rare that we actually have an injury in this sport.\u201d<\/p>\n WHAT WAS YOUR EMOTIONAL REACTION?\u00a0 \u201cIt probably affected me the same way it affected a lot of members of our team.\u00a0 It\u2019s a hard dose of perspective.\u00a0 You go from being nervous and anxious about the race and thinking that you\u2019re about to have a fantastic start to the season and vindication of a lot of the effort you had over the offseason to realizing those concerns aren\u2019t really that heavy and that weighty and that really the important part is you just go to thinking that I hope he\u2019s all right and this doesn\u2019t impact him going forward.\u00a0 He has two young, beautiful daughters and thankfully several hours later we kind of got that news and there really was a wave of relief for everybody in our organization.\u00a0 There\u2019s a group at the hospital \u2013 Mike Helton and Jim France and Jack \u2013 and I think a lot of prayers were said and I think a lot of people felt they were answered when we got that news.\u201d<\/p>\n THOUGHTS ON GETTING A WAIVER UPON RYAN\u2019S RETURN?\u00a0 \u201cWe really don\u2019t know.\u00a0 I think we haven\u2019t crossed that bridge.\u00a0 I know what Ryan\u2019s perspective is \u2013 he recognizes there\u2019s a precedent.\u00a0 We haven\u2019t talked about this with NASCAR because it hasn\u2019t been high on the priority list, but it\u2019s something that I think in his mind he\u2019s gonna figure out how he can get back here, get that waiver and then go out and win a race.\u00a0 We are gonna continue to pursue that vision until we\u2019re told we can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n HAS RYAN USED HIS SENSE OF HUMOR OR MADE ANY COMMENTS ABOUT THE CRASH?\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m glad you recognize his sense of humor.\u00a0 As an aside, when Chris Buescher started with us this year he was asked what one of the most difficult things has been for him in the transition and he said it\u2019s trying to figure out at times whether Ryan Newman is being serious or sarcastic.\u00a0 I think we\u2019ve seen that in our conversations in the last few days, so that personality type is not impacted, but we haven\u2019t talked a whole lot about the actual race.\u201d<\/p>\n COULD WE SEE RYAN AT THE TRACK BEFORE HE\u2019S ACTUALLY BACK IN THE CAR?\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a good question.\u00a0 It\u2019s not something we\u2019ve discussed, but I wouldn\u2019t see any reason why not.\u00a0 I know his objective is to get back as quickly as he can and get in the car, but I could see the minute Ryan is given the green light to be back at the track he\u2019ll be back out there whether it\u2019s getting himself ready or helping Ross to prepare.\u00a0 I\u2019m certain that will be high on his priority list.\u201d<\/p>\n DOES IT SURPRISE YOU AT ALL RYAN\u2019S APPARENT INVINCIBILITY AND IS IT TRUE HE ASKED FOR DONUTS WHEN HE WOKE UP?\u00a0 \u201cIt does not surprise me.\u00a0 He is as tough as they come and it was also refreshing to be in the hospital room listening to his family make fun of him for having no neck and for just being completely thick.\u00a0 And there is truth to the rumor that when he heard there were donuts down in the room where we were all congregated that he asked his dad to confiscate some and bring them back up to his room.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what happened them, but not a surprising development.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Steve Newmark, president, Roush Fenway Racing, held a Q&A session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this morning to read a statement from Ryan Newman and talk about Monday\u2019s accident at Daytona International Speedway.\u00a0 STEVE NEWMARK, President, Roush Fenway Racing \u2013\u00a0\u201cI appreciate all you guys being here today.\u00a0 Ryan apologizes for not being able to be 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