It happened again. Just like 2023, Ryan Preece was sent flipping on the backstretch at Daytona International Speedway. In August 2023 also at Daytona his Ford got caught on the grass that lined the pavement and was sent flipping over and over in a terrifying feat of acrobatics. He did climb out but was taken to a local hospital and left with black eyes the following week.
The speedway reacted by paving over the area that was once covered with grass. Sunday night showed that effort may have been fruitless.
Sunday night Preece was running well on an overtime finish. Up front Christopher Bell tried to grab the lead from Denny Hamlin, made his move with four to go but got sent nose-first into the wall, triggering a terrifying wreck that saw Preece go airborne. Again. Bell’s car came down into the Ford of Preece whose car did a wheelie then went flipping, spinning and pirouetting into Turn 3.
Thankfully, Preece walked away shaken but largely unscathed.
“We had a really good car,” Preece said. “Honestly, I don’t even know what happened in front of me. I haven’t seen the replay. I was in line, pushing, and when you get down to the end of these races, we are all just really aggressive because you have to be aggressive. It is just the position we are in. We had a really fast BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang, and it is just frustrating when you can’t do anything with it.”
Preece also went for a violent flip at Talladega earlier in 2023. He again came out of that crash unscathed. Here’s hoping that Preece’s car remains firmly on the ground the rest of the season. For the immediate future there is little doubt NASCAR will study what happened, and react if needed.
“Yeah, I don’t know if it’s the diffuser or what that makes these cars like a sheet of plywood when you walk out on a windy day,” he said. “But you know when the car took off like that and it got real quiet. All I thought about was my daughter…I’m lucky to walk away.”
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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