The 2020 Daytona 500 ended with a wild finish and a terrifying crash that left Ryan Newman in serious condition and Denny Hamlin a three-time winner at the 500. Newman's No. 6 Ford collided with Ryan Blaney's, causing the car to flip in the air and land upside down on the track. Just two days after the accident, Newman is walking, joking with his family members and has been released from the hospital.

Newman avoiding more serious injuries after the horrifying accident is a testament to the safety of the cars and just how much innovation has occurred over the years. NASCAR knows there are always improvements to be made and they are looking into Newman's situation to make these advancements going forward.

Newman's mangled car was removed from the track once medical professionals carefully had taken him out of the vehicle and the car headed to NASCAR's Research and Development facility in Concord, North Carolina. The No. 6 car will be studied at the facility, in hopes of finding ways to make future cars safer for drivers. 

The process is lengthy, with them taking a look at each part of the vehicle that kept the driver safe as well as the parts of the car that did not hold up as well.

Andy Petree, competition director for Richard Childress Racing, described what they plan to do with the car, "Kind of like an NTSB investigation ... take that mindset and go find anything and everything they can to make the car safer."

Petree used to work with Newman and knows the driver puts an emphasis on safety. 

"I've known Ryan a long time," he said. "He is one of the smarter drivers out there. He does have that engineering mind and always thinking about safety because he's the one sitting in there."

With this crash, it is the driver's side door that will likely get a look and Petree predicts Newman will want to assist NASCAR in the next line of safety precautions.

"It's a very sensitive area for impact because like I said, 'you can't predict every kind of crash.' This one was upside down and then another impact after that from the front of another car to that driver's area with the car inverted," Petree explained.

Newman is no stranger to helping innovate cars after a crash. A wreck at Talladega in 2009 that Newman was involved in helped lead to safety innovation and a roll bar named after him.

Petree says they took what happened in that crash to add a piece that would prevent similar accidents. 

"The front of the roof actually came down some so they added another payload bar, so there's two of them in the upper windshield area," he said. "That's made the car a lot tougher in that particular area of the car in those rollover accidents and then post rollover impact."

Drivers know the cars are safer, and Petree says this causes many to take more risks. 

"It creates almost this atmosphere we see today where the drivers are not afraid to mix it up with each other,' He said. "You see a lot of pushing and shoving and mixing it up with each other at 200 mph."