Motorsport: 'Miracle on so many levels' - Nascar driver Ryan Newman on how he walked from that crash

Ryan Newman goes airborne as he collided with Corey LaJoie on the final lap of the NASCAR Daytona 500 auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Monday, Feb 17, 2020. Photo / AP

Three weeks after his terrifying crash in the Daytona 500, Ryan Newman called his recovery "a miracle on so many levels" and disclosed that he was "knocked out" from the impact as his car tumbled through the air and disintegrated.

"It's emotional, no doubt," Newman told the "Today" show Wednesday morning, "and I think about the fact that I was that close [to death or serious injury], but really in the end I'm really humbled by the opportunity to continue my life, to be blessed by so many people's prayers, to be sitting here and to hopefully make something of it - to enjoy life with my daughters."

Since leaving the hospital, he has gone to a race - to watch - and returned to the Roush Fenway garage. He hasn't raced, though, and there's no timetable for his return. A smiling Newman bore no visible marks from the crash in the interview, looking as hale as he did in video of him walking out of Daytona's Halifax Medical Center holding his young daughters' hands less than 48 hours after the crash. Ashlyn and Brooklyn were at the race and witnessed the wreck.

"'Daddy's all right'," he said he told them. "They seem to be completely fine with the fact that I'm still Daddy. I think it would have been totally different if something else would have happened. I'm 100% who I was, which they were good with, so I'm fine."

In the aftermath of the wreck, there was no immediate word on his condition and whether he was even alive. Finally, he said only that he'd had a head injury.

"It's still humbling to watch it [on replays] and know that I'm sitting here without a headache, which is amazing, just a miracle on so many levels - just thankful for so many people for prayers, for all the things that went into me being safer in that situation."

Newman described his injury as "basically like a bruised brain. It takes time for it to heal. I was knocked out. There was a point where I don't remember a part of the race.

Realistically, I just feel so lucky. On so many levels, I feel so lucky. You look at the crash and you think, 'That's spectacular,' in a bad way, right? You look at the car afterwards and you think about all things of what happened right for me to be sitting here."

Those things include safety features that Newman, who has an engineering degree from Purdue, has pushed for over the years. He's back at the track, watching and not driving, but there's no timetable for his return. It will be, he said, "as soon as I possibly can."

Luck helped, too, including "where I was kind of hit, so to speak," he said. "The [driver's] cage was compromised and all those welds held together, so the guys in the shop did an amazing job. All those things that happened got me here. I got hit from behind by a car going 190 miles an hour and it pushed me back, but then he [Corey LaJoie] pushed me forward. His car actually hit my seat. Lots of things that happened, angels [making air quotes] aligned."

After being released from the hospital, he headed back to the track and joined his friend Martin Truex Jr. Last weekend, he was at the NASCAR race in Arizona, just watching with his crew. In his place, Ryan Chastain is driving his Roush Fenway car. Why, he was asked Wednesday, would he tempt fate by getting behind the wheel again, given how lucky he had been last month?

"I love it," he said with a laugh, "because I'm just 42, right? It's been a little big painful to be out of the racecar, to not be doing what I've done for so many years. I started racing when I was 4 years old - 4-and-a-half years old - it's just kind of who I am."