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“As a father, as a racer, we keep beating on a
door hoping for a different result and we know where there’s a
problem: at superspeedways," Preece said. "I don’t want to be
the example. When it finally does get somebody, I don’t want it
to be me.
“I got a 2-year-old daughter, just like a lot of us; we’ve got
families. Something needs to be done because cars lifting off
the ground like that.”
Preece was involved in a more harrowing crash in the summer race
at Daytona in 2023. His car flipped numerous times, and he was
transported to a hospital and kept overnight. He showed up the
week with two black eyes from the wreck. NASCAR and Daytona
responded by replacing sections of infield grass with pavement.
He said the one in the closing laps of the Daytona 500 on Sunday
was worse. He finished 32nd in the No. 60 Ford for Roush Fenway
Keselowski Racing. It's his first year with the team.
“Everything about that: airborne, heading toward the fence, it’s
not a good place to be in, honestly,” he said. "With a hit like
that — a head-on impact — I don’t really think it should have
gone airborne. I’m just not very happy. I’m safe, just
frustrated.”
Three-time Daytona 500 winner Jeff Gordon, now vice chairman of
Hendrick Motorsports and the race-winning team, said wrecking at
superspeedways have “always been on the drivers’ minds.”
“It's always been that balance between entertainment and luck of
the draw or whatever you want to call it,” Gordon said. "There’s
a safety aspect of it, too, because the cars continue to be
bumper cars at 200 miles-per-hour, then you’re going to have a
lot of wrecks.
"The cars have gotten much safer, as well. For (Preece), what is
that, two years in a row or was it two years ago that he had
that other incident? Of course he’s going to be vocal about
that. You never want to get airborne in a car once let alone
what he’s been through.”
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