NASCAR Now Must Address Blocking Following Newman Disaster

So the 2020 Daytona 500 will not be remembered for terrific racing.  It will be remembered for Ryan Newman's bad crash.   That Newman as of this late-Monday authorship is stable albeit seriously hurt is a sign he'll pull through, though we seriously doubt he'll ever race again. 

Newman started this entire mess when he swerved to chop off Ryan Blaney and got nailed. 

Steve O'Donnell's statement on Newman's injuries following the 500

On social media there was widespread comparison to Dale Earnhardt's fatal 2001 crash - to which this mess has zero comparison.   The 1995 Jimmy Horton crash where he was T-boned in midair by Ed Dixon is what the Newman crash resembled. 


The epidemic of crashes at the end of the Daytona 500 came a week after melees in the Busch Clash, and both bring to the fore what a problem blocking has become in NASCAR.   The first big melee on the backstretch was a slam draft gone wrong; the irony is the drivers had pretty well policed it following the Clash.   Other wrecks such as the late Turn One mess were caused by blocks; again drivers seemed to have policed it reasonably following the Busch Clash.

It's been an issue for some years now with blocks going wrong, such as Aric Almirola's last lap crash in 2018 and Austin Dillon's disastrous swerve last July in the Firecracker 400 - ironically the first of now-three straight "plate" races that have been delayed or cut into two days by rain.

Correspondent Michael Dickinson makes an interesting analogy to the 2009 Keselowski-Edwards melee, ironically involving Newman, and which also illustrates the issue of blocking.

Contrast this with Grant Enfinger in winning the NextEra 250 on Friday night before the 500.  He held his line and simply raced a challenging Jordan Anderson to the stripe.  The two bounced off each other but none of it was gratuitous, and it made for a terrific finish to what had become a rip-roaring race.  

Another, more historical, contrast is the famous 1974 Firecracker 400 finish where Richard Petty tried to stop David Pearson's pass but left room rather than wreck himself and Pearson.


These wrecks simply shouldn't be happening.   I certainly do not favor adding more officiating to the sport - a sport that like all sports needs to start reducing incidence of officiating.   But NASCAR does need to address the epidemic of blocking, and drivers need to police each other a lot more.   Trying to protect the lead - we get that.   Pushing another car to speed up him and thus yourself - we favor that.  NASCAR needs to discourage the gratuitous blocking that's become a clear problem and drivers need to police it themselves better.   


Terrific racing doesn't need wrecks.   Nose to nose combat first on back is what it needs. UPDATE: Newman was released from the hospital Wednesday afternoon.