“…and up in the air goes Ryan Preece. And for the second time in his career, he is flipping at Daytona,” This was Mike Joy’s call from the NASCAR booth when Preece went airborne in the recent Daytona 500. But before we get to that incident…what is it with Preece, Daytona, 5 laps to go in the race, and eventually NASCAR learning a lesson from all the chaos? In the 2023 Coke Zero Sugar 400, with five laps to go, Preece barrel-rolled several times in the infield grass before his car came to a stop erupting in flames. The violent crash had NASCAR repave the grass area for something this scary to not happen again in Daytona. But it did, and again it was Preece!

During last Sunday’s race, with five laps to go, Cole Custer got into the back of Christopher Bell, making him lose. And Preece had no idea of what had happened up front as suddenly he was diving headfirst into Bell. The result was the #60 airborne in another scary crash. And all Preece thought about at that moment was his “about his daughter.” As this could have been fatal. This crash once again sparked up the conversation about driver’s safety on tracks like Daytona. The likes of Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick already weighed in on the situation, but all of us were awaiting NASCAR’s response.

NASCAR’s analysis of the crash

Daytona International Speedway and cars going airborne is nothing new. But the recent incident looked way more scary for the way the flip unfolded. So, after Preece was airborne, the front half of the car was lifted, almost like a wheelie on a motorcycle. Naturally, the car should’ve landed quickly on all its wheels but rather it took a nasty flip and rammed into the outside wall before coming to a halt in the infield section of the track. Take a look at the incident:

Thankfully the car was upright and Preece walked out safely. Still, the way the crash happened led to an uproar from the NASCAR community. Leading to NASCAR opening up the safety debate. NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, Elton Sawyer on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, said, “We’ll send our folks over there this morning to start looking through that, working closely with Ryan and the team and the folks at RFK to see what we can learn. And then we will, if there (are) things that come out of that. That we can implement going forward as we’ve done in the past, we will continue to do that.”

But still, Sawyer believes that the car did everything it was supposed to do in a wreck like this. “The front stayed up for a while, but once the car started to turn, the air started to see the side of it. I’m not an aerodynamicist (and) I don’t claim to be, but I know the guys in the back will dissect that. We’ll go over this morning, in this particular case, our team at the racetrack, Eric and his team, and Brandon Thomas and the team looked at the car (and) felt like all the safety stuff did what we needed it to do,” He added.

However, Ryan Preece doesn’t agree with Sawyer. He thinks that safety needs to be paramount when it comes to Superspeedway races and NASCAR should make the necessary changes to prevent such flips. It is natural for Preece to feel this way after being in a life-threatening experience twice. And he thinks NASCAR needs to act fast before it’s not just a close call anymore!

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Ryan Preece left scared, demanding a change!

NASCAR prides itself on safety, especially with the Next-Gen car. And we have seen drivers escape scary situations. Just in the summer Daytona race in 2024, Michael McDowell was airborne. Or in the same race…remember when Josh Berry went up in the air, into the wall, and spun for a good minute on his top? The crashes looked scary, but both walked out unscathed.

Still, Preece feels we cannot wait for something bad to happen. And that cars should not go airborne in such high-speed races. He said, “I’ve got a two-year-old daughter, and just like a lot of us, we have families. So something needs to be done because cars lifting off the ground like that. That felt worse than Daytona in ’23.” 

And we agree with Preece! Yes, the last fatal moment in the Cup was Dale Earnhardt Sr’s death in 2001. Or if we consider Carlos Pardo dying at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in NASCAR Mexico, it was in 2009. That’s still more than a decade and a half of nothing happening. But if there is a way to stop cars from lifting off, it should be implemented. They already tried their luck with the shark fins, which obviously didn’t work, so NASCAR needs to look at the root cause of this problem.

Anyway, Preece doesn’t want to be the precedence again and again. “We keep beating on a door hoping for a different result. And I think we know where there’s a problem at Superspeedways. I don’t want to be the example of when it finally does get somebody, I don’t want it to be me.” Not just Preece, no driver should have to be an example for the change to come.

What are your thoughts on the crash? Share with us in the comments down below.