Newman said he was satisfied with the integrity of his car, despite the fact his helmet was wedged against the roll cage when he flipped.

“When I had 3,400 pounds come down basically on my head, I never was compressed physically in the car,” said Newman, eighth among 12 drivers in Chase points with three races remaining. “I say that, have to explain it a little bit. It’s just like a head-on collision. When two cars hit head-on, you got the force of both. I had the force of me going up in the car while the car was coming down on me. I was compressed. My spine was compressed. But I never was compressed to the point that it pushed my butt down into the seat. There was an instantaneous load there that hurt. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still sore from it. But I was never wedged. Once they got the car back upright, I was able to take my helmet off, there was room there. It wasn’t like I was physically wedged.

“The second part of my answer is, I was I guess a little disappointed in the fact the cage crushed the way it did. I know it was a heck of a hit, don’t get me wrong. We’ve got to be able to learn from that. Whatever we might be able to do from a welding standpoint, from a wall-thickness standpoint with the tubing, to make it stronger so that doesn’t happen again is equally as important from a safety standpoint.”

Stewart admitted his concern for Newman extended beyond that of an employee.

“Well, if he wasn’t driving for me, he’d be driving for somebody else,” said Stewart, Cup champion in 2002 and 2005. “At the end of the day, it’s about him being a person. The harder part is that he’s a good friend of mine on top of that. He was before we were teammates. We will be if, for some reason, we’re not teammates in the future. You know, he’s a person. Like I said, he’s a friend. Anytime something like that happens, doesn’t matter whether they’re a friend of yours or not, when you got a fellow-competitor out there, that’s the first thing you’re worried about, their safety.”

The April race at Talladega was marred when Edwards was launched into the catch-fencing, a frightening crash that also injured several spectators. Newman indicated he was hopeful NASCAR would make more progress in dealing with the aero puzzle before the series returns to Talladega in another six months.

“I think there are, for sure, things that could be done and should be done based on what we saw, both Mark’s accident and my accident, the spring accident with Carl,” Newman said. “Aerodynamically there are things that need to be done to keep the cars on the ground. I said that six months ago. Six months is plenty of time to make those changes. The important thing is to make the right changes, to do the testing, the best of our capabilities with the tools that we have – meaning wind tunnels, modeling, things like that – to make the difference, make the right difference.”

Newman added he is not a fan of NASCAR’s bump-drafting rule, which prohibits the practice through the turns.

“I understand why it was implemented, but I don’t think that is the fix,” Newman said. “I think if you put the right race cars on that racetrack as we have seen in the past, you can put a good show on for the fans, albeit not the ideal racetrack and not the ideal way a driver wants to race, but a show for the fans that will be better than what we saw last Sunday.

“I stated in my post-infield care center interview that I thought the drivers need to have a little bit more respect from NASCAR in order for us to make our own decisions, for us to be able to go out there and say,’ Hey, I’ll treat you the way I know you want to be treated and vice versa.’ I feel it used to be that way. This sport has grown so much because of those people, those drivers that made it that way, and the more restriction that you give the drivers, the less the fans are going to be delivered excitement. That’s not good.”

In another bit of irony, Newman’s 13th and most recent Cup victory was scored on the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway in the 2008 season-opening Daytona 500. Winless over the last 68 races, Newman said he was more-than-willing to meet again with NASCAR personnel to brainstorm additional plate-race ideas.

Stewart, fifth in Chase points in his first year as Cup owner/driver, said he would leave those chores to Newman. “Trust me, he’s the engineer. He’s the smarter one of the two of us,” said Stewart, winner of four races this season. “I’m not smart enough to know how to fix it. NASCAR has a great staff. If there was an easy solution, they would have figured it out by now. The good thing is that you have drivers that are willing to go over, like Ryan did this week, and spend time with the sanctioning body and try to help at least explain the situation from his first-hand experience. You know, that’s the only way to make things better, is just stay in communication with NASCAR over it.”

Newman said he believed both of the key NASCAR officials he dealt with learned as much from him as he did from them.

“That was the point of it. Therefore, I think it was a good conversation,” Newman said. “I just feel there were things that could be done or potentially could be done to make it easier for the next guy. That’s my responsibility, ’cause the next guy might be me again. You never know.”

– John Sturbin can be reached at jsturbin@racintoday.com