Ryan Preece would be better off staying away from the Daytona International Speedway in the future. The 34-year-old suffered what was his second major wreck in two years at the World Center of Racing on Sunday night. The accident happened on Lap 197 after Cole Custer gave Christopher Bell a huge bump from behind, causing him to lose control.
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Bell crashed into the wall before going sideways into Preece’s No. 60 Ford. Silence ensued for a brief few moments before the car lifted in the air and slid forward on its rear wheels alone. It then flipped, slid on its roof, and slammed into the outside wall. The contact on the rear end turned it back on its wheels.
Fortunately, he was unharmed and released from the infield medical center a short while later. He spoke to Fox Sports and noted with a sigh of relief that all he could think in those dire moments was his daughter, Rebecca Marie. Born on August 7, 2023, the child is just over a year old.
He said, “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. But when the car took off like that, it got real quiet. All I thought about was my daughter, so I’m lucky to walk away, but we’re getting really close to somebody not being able to, so I’m very grateful.”
Preece was scared for Rebecca during his earlier Daytona crash
The first time that Preece flipped at Daytona, he was driving the No. 41 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing. He was caught in a similar late-race incident that sent his car barrel rolling down the infield. He was released after being hospitalized overnight for observation. NASCAR then decided to pave the infield and make alterations to the curbing.
Nevertheless, it was a night that rocked the Preece family to its core. Rebecca was just a few weeks old at the time, and the driver knew that he had escaped a situation that could have ended up a lot worse. He told the press, “I’m very, very blessed and happy that I was able to survive and not put my wife or my child in a tough situation.”
“Because those are some thoughts that you think about now where selfishly before when you’d wreck, you’d just get out of the car and move on.” During the accident, his wife and daughter were not at the track. This led to him buying a motorhome so that they could accompany him to races. Regardless of their presence, he will hope to avoid such scares through the rest of the season.
