Ryan Preece has a habit of getting into life-threatening wrecks at the Daytona International Speedway. In 2023, his car barrel-rolled multiple times before coming to a rest in the infield grass. In this season’s Daytona 500, it flipped in the air once again. Both incidents left fans grabbing their hearts in fear. But one person who is worried more than anyone else in such situations is his wife, Heather DesRochers.
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Preece and DesRochers met back in 2009 at the Stafford Motor Speedway. Like him, she was a huge racing aficionado as well. Her father, a race car driver, had purchased the style of racing car that Preece worked on at the time.
Preece’s job was to help set the car up during test sessions. He explained on Rubbin is Racing, “When they would go test, we’d throw my seat in it.”
“I’d help dial the car in and then we’d put her seat in or somebody’s seat in to help them realize what a car should feel like.” Following their first meeting, they competed against each other in the SK Modified Series in 2011. Preece won the championship, and DesRochers won the Rookie of the Year award. It was in the same year that they began dating each other.
In 2010 and 2011, DesRochers was also a part of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program. The couple dated for nearly six years before tying the knot in 2017.
The couple has one daughter, Rebecca Marie, who was born in 2023. Not surprisingly, little Rebecca has already begun showing an affinity for race cars. Preece spoke about the same in an interview earlier this year.
He said, “She loves her little toy car, which I’m sure most kids do, but she also loves sitting in my truck. She loves grabbing the steering wheel. I see the glow that she has when she gets around cars.” After his crash in Daytona this year, he mentioned how all he could think about during the impact was her. Fortunately, he got to walk away without harm.
Heather said of the incident in a conversation with Fox Sports, “I couldn’t help but think it wouldn’t happen twice. Everything flashed through my head—what life would look like if he were to be gone.” That’s not a fear that any wife of a NASCAR driver must have. Driver safety has improved manifold in recent years, and still, the nervousness for life exists.
But Preece understands the risk every time he gets into the car. Stock car racing is what he wants to do with all his time. DesRochers and Rebecca are the fuel that pushes him to do it. Love binds their family together through all the tough times. Yet, his wrecks cannot be discarded as terrible luck. They are a wake-up call for NASCAR.
