Newman said that while his fire for racing remained constant throughout his recovery process, he changed within himself as he gained perspective on his crash.
“It’s a little bit of a jaded answer because the reality is, yes. People have asked me, ‘Have you changed?’ And I continually say, ‘No, I haven’t changed,’ but what happened is it’s a magnifier,” Newman explained. “Things that you love, you love more because part of you was taken away for a little bit of time. It has opened my eyes and made me more appreciative of a lot of things in life, and probably a little bit more positive and I guess jolly, you could say, in respect to some of the other things that don’t go so well.
“I feel like it has magnified my personality for all the positive things and, therefore, decreased some of the negative things. I don’t think that’s considered a change to me; that’s really just an adjustment.”
After recovering from the injuries that he suffered last February, Newman returned to the driver’s seat in mid-May, when the NASCAR Cup Series returned to action at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway following the global sports shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He returned to Daytona for the first time since the crash in August, but Newman acknowledged that this time — the one-year anniversary of his near-fatal incident — will “undoubtedly” be different.
What has renewed Newman’s excitement, however, is the enthusiasm his two daughters — Brooklyn and Ashlyn — have for his racing endeavors. They recently watched him compete in a dirt midget at the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals in Tulsa, Okla., in January.
“It was fun for me to get to the Chili Bowl, because it was the first racing event that they got to go to and watch me race again,” Newman noted. “It was a short night and not the success that I wanted to have, but it was humbling and heartwarming for me to have them there and get back in the race car.
“I look forward to that again, when we can get them back into a Cup race and have them be a part of it,” Newman added. “It’s had its challenges, no doubt, because of everything going on, but it will be special to look at the one-year anniversary this year and, hopefully, it brings with it another great chance to reach victory lane like we had last year.”
Perhaps most importantly, Newman wants to finish what he came so close to accomplishing in 2020.
Newman knows that the perfect way to put a period on this chapter of his life would be with his second victory in the Daytona 500 during the iconic event’s 63rd edition on Feb. 14.
“That was the hope, even back in (August) when we raced there, was to be able to have that dramatic chapter come to an end with a victory and a playoff berth,” said Newman regarding Daytona Int’l Speedway. “It would be even more special to come back a year later and really, in all reality, just to have an opportunity to come as close as we did last year. That would be amazing as well.
“I’ve been around this sport long enough to know that there are drivers that have never got a top-10 (finish), or in my case a top 10 on the roof, let alone to have a shot at (winning) the Daytona 500 the way I had a chance last year,” Newman added. “Just being in the hunt again will be an amazing feeling, hopefully, and all the things that go along with it are just icing on the cake if we can get to that point.
“Next week will be Kohler Generators’ first race on a Cup car and it would be an amazing story if we can put all those things together and earn a victory for them one year after everything that happened.”
Practice for the 63rd Daytona 500 begins at noon ET on Feb. 10, with the race scheduled to take the green flag live on FOX at 2:30 p.m. ET on Feb. 14.