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Ryan Preece Calls for Change After Second Terrifying Crash at Daytona in Three Years

Ryan Preece was lucky to walk away unscathed after going airborne at Daytona once again.

Tyler Lauletta

Ryan Preece goes airborne in the closing laps of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.
Ryan Preece goes airborne in the closing laps of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. / Nigel Cook/News-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

NASCAR driver Ryan Preece was lucky to come out unscathed after a scary pile-up in Sunday’s Daytona 500 put his car airborne and upside down.

With just five laps to go in the race, Christopher Bell, who was leading the outside line around the track, hit the wall, and started a domino effect of collisions behind him.

One hit into Preece lifted the underside of his car, and eventually lifted it all the way off the track and flipped it. It was the scariest wreck of a day that had plenty of action on the track.

It was the second time that Preece has flipped in the air in the past four races at Daytona. At the 2023 Coke Zero Sugar 400, he found himself in a similar spot. With five laps to go, Preece’s car spun, lifted, and barrel-rolled through the infield grass.

After Sunday’s race, Preece stressed the need to address the issue of the current cars and their tendency to lift on superspeedways.

"We keep beating on a door hoping for a different result," Preece told reporters after the race. "And I think we know where there's a problem at superspeedways. I don't want to be the example of when it finally does get somebody, I don't want it to be me.

"I’ve got a two-year-old daughter, and just like a lot of us, we have families. So something needs to be done because cars lifting off the ground like that. That felt worse than Daytona in ’23."

On the one hand, it’s a testament to the sport and its concern for safety that Preece was able to walk out of Sunday’s crash unharmed. On the other, getting flipped at Daytona once in a lifetime is one too many—twice feels like playing with fire. Preece is just sounding the warning as loud as he can before someone gets burnt.

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Tyler Lauletta
TYLER LAULETTA

Tyler Lauletta is a staff writer for the Breaking and Trending News Team/team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI, he covered sports for nearly a decade at Business Insider, and helped design and launch the OffBall newsletter. He is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, and remains an Eagles and Phillies sicko. When not watching or blogging about sports, Tyler can be found scratching his dog behind the ears.

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