Ryan Preece, shiners and all, ready to race after Daytona wreck

A week after his violent wreck at Daytona International Speedway, Ryan Preece met with reporters outside his transporter at Darlington Raceway, primarily to reaffirm that he was unhurt and ready to race in Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

As Preece stood on the steps of his hauler taking questions from the assembled media, he removed his sunglasses to reveal striking purple bruises beneath his eyes—the most visible after-effects of his tumbling No. 41 Ford, which spun in mid-air, barrel-rolled through the infield on the Daytona backstretch and came to rest upright in the grass.

“I’m good, I’m OK, I’ve got no broken bones, I’m not sore,” Preece said. “I wasn’t sore after it—a little bit of bruising, but nothing too crazy.”

That’s when Preece revealed his two “shiners.”

“They aren’t bad,” Preece said. “I going to put an end to it right now. What I want you all to know is that racing in general—whether you’re racing a sprint car or a modified or anything—is dangerous. There’s consequences to everything.

“But what we do as race car drivers is respect one another to not put ourselves in positions to be like that. I’m fine. My vision’s perfect—everything about it. They don’t hurt. They look bad to you guys, but you look at a 410 (sprint car) driver after some flips—they get this. It’s from spinning in the air and all that, the blood flow, whatever. I’m not a doctor…

“What I can tell you is I went through all the tests. I feel fine. If I didn’t feel fine, I wouldn’t be in this car this weekend.”