As the curtain fell on the NASCAR 2023 regular-season finale, the Daytona International Speedway bore witness to a thrilling showdown. With the last playoff berth on the line, the race was not destined to have an uneventful green-flag finish. And yet, the drama that unfolded left everyone in shock. No one could have anticipated the spine-chilling accident that befell Ryan Preece during the race’s final laps.

Fortunately, news of the Stewart-Haas Racing driver emerging from the wreckage and standing on his own was a sigh of relief. Going over the accident in the NASCAR on NBC podcast, NASCAR legend Kyle Petty’s seasoned eyes picked up an intriguing insight that many others might’ve missed. 

Kyle Petty left dumbfounded as #41 Ford Mustang defies gravity 

In the moments that led to his crash, the 32-year-old’s #41 Mustang got bumped in the rear causing it to collide with teammate Chase Briscoe‘s car and run off track. As it did, the car lifted off in the air for a good few seconds before throwing itself into a series of rolls. Observing the incident, Petty said that the way the car moved reminded him of earlier accidents: John Anderson in 1981, Rusty Wallace in 1983 and 1993, and his own father, Richard Petty, at Daytona.

But what stood out for Petty from the crash was how Preece‘s Mustang picked up speed as it got up in the air. Reflecting on the rarity, the commentator said, “But when you look at things … They begin to slow down as the accident happens. It kind of drags itself down. This accident … As he came out of the pack, it seemed to accelerate. It’s like a hurricane over cold water. It was picking up speed, you know, it needed to be, it needed warm water to slow itself down, and it just didn’t slow itself down.”

A couple of hard hits to the top of the car devastated it and brought it to a halt. The accident happened over a blithering 8 seconds in real-time. The fact that the aerodynamics of a 3500-pound machine caused it to lift off the ground is in itself a disturbing yet fascinating occurrence. But as Petty pointed out, the car picking up speed as it flung through the air pushes the lines of believability. Speaking on the same, the NASCAR veteran contradictorily voiced that the accident wasn’t as severe as it looked.

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Was the Ryan Preece accident more “violent-looking” than it actually was?

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Kyle stated that the hits that the Mustang sustained on its top were particularly hard. However, he went on to say, “And the last two hits were hard hits when he hit on his top, up until that time, they were just rolls. It was violent looking. And listen, I don’t wanna be, in that cardinal, don’t get me wrong, but it was probably more violent looking than it actually was, in a lot of ways.”

Ryan Preece managing to get out of the car without much outside help might in itself back Petty’s opinion. But whether that should be attributed to the car’s strength or the accident’s severity or pure luck is something that only a technical analysis can answer. Though Tony Stewart’s driver has now obtained medical clearance to get back home from the hospital, his car won’t be recovering anytime soon.

In all probability, NASCAR will soon be borrowing the wreck from Stewart-Haas Racing and conducting a deep analysis of how things went down. As is the promotion’s generic procedure, they will want to take a look at all the parts and understand the what and why of things. In Kyle’s own words, “It will be the same meticulous process and investigation that the FFA goes through in a plane crash to determine why something happens.”

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