“Our Sport Is Inherently Dangerous”: NASCAR’s Senior VP Breaks Silence on Ryan Preece’s Near-Fatal Daytona Crash

The final race of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series was full of drama. While it didn’t disappoint one bit, there were some concerning moments including the Ryan Preece crash at Daytona. At first, the incident looked a dangerous one, raising the heartbeats of plenty. Fortunately, the Stewart-Haas Racing driver survived fatal injuries. In light of this, NASCAR’s senior VP Elton Sawyer shared his views on the accident.

With the Next-gen car, a lot has changed in the sport. While the safety of the drivers has always remained a concern, the Daytona race was a reminder in many regards. Things could have easily gone south.

NASCAR’s Sr VP takes the positives from Ryan Preece’s Daytona barrel-roll crash

The final spot for the 2023 playoffs was at stake at Daytona. Naturally, with 17 drivers eligible for the spot, it was going to be an interesting affair. While it provided a lot of entertainment, there were two concerning wrecks in the race. The first one saw Ryan Blaney take a hard hit just before the end of Stage 2.

While Blaney survived with no major injuries, the NASCAR world witnessed a heart-in-the-mouth moment with six laps remaining in the race. After being hit by Erik Jones from behind, Ryan Preece saw his car go airborne and flip almost a dozen times.

In real-time, the accident looked quite violent as many feared the worst at the end of it. Luckily, Preece came out of the car and was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital. Tony Stewart’s driver was unharmed in the incident, bringing a massive sigh of relief to everyone involved.

Speaking on the event on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, the sport’s Senior Elton Sawyer acknowledged that the sport will always possess some amount of risk. He said, “Our Sport is inherently dangerous. Whether it’s on pit road or behind the wheel of a race car it’s inherently dangerous.”

Sawyer even saw the positive side of things after the incident. He said, “But the good news is our drivers were able to get out of the vehicles and we can learn and move forward.” NASCAR’s safety mechanism does deserve some acknowledgment here.

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Having said that, the Preece incident still doesn’t settle the argument concerning the presence of grass around the track.

Following the Ryan Preece crash at Daytona, Elton Sawyer confirms considering the removal of grass in the run-off

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For a long time, debates have gone around involving the presence of grass in the run-off area. The argument only got more fuel after the Ryan Preece crash at Daytona. However, Elton Sawyer made the effort to shed more light on the matter as he confirmed discussing it with the facilities and the promoters involved.

He said, “We look at the facility and the SAFER barriers and where we put the tire barriers and where there’s grass and where there’s asphalt and how our vehicles get to those areas. All those things we look at.” Without hesitating, Sawyer reiterated prioritizing the driver’s safety.

The 63-year-old said, “We [have] good collaboration with the facilities and the track promoters around the country just to make sure that we have the safest environment for our competitors and our fans. But yes absolutely that will be something that will be discussed.”

It is imperative that NASCAR only get more cautious and proactive with their safety measures after the Preece incident. After all, it doesn’t take much for things to drastically go wrong on the track.

Read More: “We Need To Go Slower” – Insider Blames NASCAR for Horrifying Ryan Preece Crash at Daytona