Joe Newsham, hospitalized since his Saturday crash with a fractured vertebra and injured feet he referred to as "ground up," said he was trying Sunday morning to get doctors to release him from Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital so he could return to the racetrack and watch eliminations. In a phone interview from the New Brunswick hospital, Newsham, 40, said he was dragging around "a lot of sore muscles" as doctors were "making me try to walk softly."

Joe Newsham, hospitalized since his Saturday crash with a fractured vertebra and injured feet he referred to as "ground up," said he was trying Sunday morning to get doctors to release him from Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital so he could return to the racetrack and watch eliminations. In a phone interview from the New Brunswick hospital, Newsham, 40, said he was dragging around "a lot of sore muscles" as doctors were "making me try to walk softly."

Newsham was involved in a single-car crash during the Shakedown at E'town event.

He said the lower-back injury was "just a compression fracture" and would not require surgery. The Sicklerville, N.J., driver who won the Outlaw 10.5 Shakedown trophy last year, said, "I want to thank Eddie (Krawiec, Racewy Park dragstrip manager). He and his guys did a great job of helping me. The car was on fire when they got to me, but they did a great job."

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