Despite Heart Wrenching Crash, Bubba Wallace Manages to Laugh at the Expense of Ryan Preece’s Misery

Ryan Preece might just have a knack for flying NASCAR cars in Daytona. Just two years ago, during another race at the track, Preece spun and went flying. When he emerged unscathed from the wreck, fans thought it was a miracle. Well, after Preece managed to survive an even more dangerous crash last weekend, Bubba Wallace has found the silver lining in the incident of the wreck.

In an appearance on the Door Bumper Clear Podcast alongside his spotter Freddie Kraft, Bubba Wallace lightened the mood around the terrifying flight Ryan Preece took at the 2025 Daytona 500.

Bubba Wallace lightens the mood after Ryan Preece’s incident

The first points race with RFK Racing, and Ryan Preece was having an incredible run. He had put his car in the 12th position, fending off attacks from the likes of Kyle Larson. Given a few extra laps, Preece could have even finished in the top 10 until it all came tumbling down. With five laps left, Christopher Bell’s car barrelled into the midfield after hitting the wall, and in the ensuing chaos, Ryan Preece went flying in a NASCAR car as no driver had before.

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger: well, a little correction! In this connection, what doesn’t kill you makes you and your co-warriors a little more funny to lift off the horror. Bubba Wallace, a fellow driver who witnessed the high-speed accident, embodied a lighter tone after ensuring Preece was safe in the aftermath of the race. In a fun catch-up with Freddie Kraft, Tommy Baldwin, and Karsyn Elledge during the latest episode of the Door Bumper Clear podcast, Wallace made a joke out of the mishap and lightened the undertone.

‘‘I forgot who was on the inside of me but Preece was the next car ahead and so all I saw was his nose and I made the comment under red I was like dude he flew… and Freddy didn’t say anything so I’m like oh God! Is he okay? But from my perspective, I was like, how the hell… I knew exactly what had happened. He had hit a wheel but like he flew for so long like slow,” Wallace revealed. Having fallen down the order in the last 30 laps of the race, Wallace was one of the few people going head-to-head with Preece before the incident.

”So, this is not a funny deal at all but blah and I will find something funny out of it we were on the plane ride back together if you can find that in the car from, I think maybe in the 99, and pull that up, Preece gets airborne and his left front wheel is spinning and then all of a sudden it just stops.” What Wallace may have been referring to could be a moment when Preece may have stepped on the brake mid-air, causing the tire to stop spinning.

Even Preece took a moment to jest. He changed his social media profile picture to a photoshopped image of himself in a NASA astronaut suit. The post immediately caught the attention of the netizens, who roundly appreciated his ability to turn horror into a comedy. So, it’s not just Bubba Wallace who won the laughter race out of a tough crash.

Preece sends a humble plea to NASCAR

While Wallace addressed the incident jokingly, there are big changes needed to ensure an incident like this one doesn’t happen again. At the heart of it are changes made to the car in recent years that have added a lot of downforce to the equation. Simply put, like planes use their wings to fly, race cars use wings in the opposite direction, to stick to the ground. After all, going over 200 mph at tracks like Daytona requires cars to be virtually glued to the ground. If the car goes even slightly in the air, it goes off the ground, exactly what happened in Preece’s case.

Ryan Preece emerged as one of the strongest proponents of change. He explained, “As a father, as a racer, we keep beating on a door hoping for a different result and we know where there’s a problem: at superspeedways. I got a 2-year-old daughter, just like a lot of us; we’ve got families. Something needs to be done because cars lifting off the ground like that.” 

Tracks like Daytona and Talladega are races when drivers tend to push the car to the limit, which usually means high-speed action. If any air gets below the car going at high speeds, there is a good chance it will go airborne. There’s enough proof of it after last Sunday. Moreover, it has been evident even in other forms of racing, particularly Le Mans, when cars flying through the air have caused accidents. Perhaps NASCAR could find some inspiration for a solution from the Endurance Series to improve driver safety in the coming years.