Last season, Ryan Preece suffered one of the scariest crashes in recent NASCAR memory during the 2023 Coke Zero Sugar 400. The #41 Ford Mustang was seen taking off as it went sideways on the backstretch before violently flipping about a dozen times in spectacular fashion.
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The car eventually came to a halt in a dangled mess on the infield grass. Thankfully, the Stewart-Haas Racing driver did not suffer any major injuries. The wreck, however, opened his eyes to a few things that he hadn’t given thought to in the past. One of them was finally getting a motorhome for himself and his family.
Preece’s wife was not there at the track when the wreck happened last season and one can only imagine what the situation must have been like at home when his family witnessed the crash. With the couple having a two-week-old baby at the time, it was a scary situation, to say the least.
Crashes are an occupational hazard in the world of motorsports but even then, having your family beside yourself and vice-versa during such tense situations can make a difference. Preece made sure of that by purchasing a motorhome so that his family could accompany him to the track going forward.
Racing isn’t for the faint-hearted! 🔥@RyanPreece_ survived a terrifying crash at Daytona, flipping 13 times before the car finally came to a stop. He called it the most intense wreck of his career! 🫣@StewartHaasRcng #Mobil1 #Mobil1TheGrid pic.twitter.com/62gRLrVuXs
— Mobil 1 The Grid (@Mobil1TheGrid) August 20, 2024
“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.” Preece told FOX Sports
He added, “But now there are other things to think about. After that wreck, because my wife was home and a 2-week-old baby, that was when I ended up pulling the trigger and buying a motorhome.”
Preece will once again have to be aggressive at Daytona this year with his driving. He has yet to win a race so far this season and is far behind the cutline on points. Winning is the only way he can get into the playoffs. With Daytona’s history of throwing a wrench in the works as far as predictability goes, Preece’s chances are as high as any other driver’s headed into the race this Saturday.
“I don’t know if you would say it’s traumatic or not”
Talking to the media ahead of the race weekend, the Stewart-Haas Racing driver was asked if he was uncomfortable coming back to this particular race and venue. With the topic of his 2023 crash inevitably being brought up, the 33-year-old opined on how he feels about the same.
“I don’t know if you would say it’s traumatic or not. I do wonder if somebody like Ricky Rudd or whatnot, when he looks back to his [1984] wreck if he kind of looks at it the same way I do. That’s interesting to me. I kind of look at it from a different perspective of how does this person feel about it,” he said.
The Connecticut native is going to be seen behind the wheel of the #41 SHR Ford Mustang for the final time at Daytona. His future in the sport is yet to be decided with Tony Stewart‘s team shutting shop at the end of the year. The Truck Series winner will be looking to perform as well as possible during the remaining races this year to boost his future candidature in the highest echelon of the sport.
