Ryan Preece was released from a Daytona Beach, Florida, hospital Sunday morning and was returning home to North Carolina, Stewart-Haas Racing stated Sunday.
No other details were provided by the team.
He was held overnight for observation at Halifax Health Medical Center after a vicious crash in Saturday night’s NASCAR Cup race at Daytona International Speedway.
Previously, Stewart-Haas Racing reported that Preece was awake, alert and mobile and had been communicating with friends and family at the hospital.
Preece’s car rolled more than 10 times after it was hit from behind by Erik Jones’ car on Lap 156 of the 163-lap race. Preece’s car veered left and hit teammate Chase Briscoe’s car. That contact turned Preece’s car sideways as it slid through the Turn 3 grass. When Preece’s car went over a paved section, air got underneath the car and lifted it, beginning a vicious roll.
“This is just violent,” NASCAR on NBC analyst Jeff Burton said of Preece’s crash during the NBC broadcast. “Look at this car. That is just amazing that something that weighs over 3,500 pounds can get in the air like that.”
Preece wrote late Saturday night on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter: “If you want to be a race car driver, you better be tough. Dammit. ... I’m coming back.”
Chris Buescher, who won Saturday night’s Cup regular-season finale and is a friend of Preece, said after the race: “Appreciative of how safe our race cars are. I think as an industry that sometimes we forget it’s dangerous still. That can certainly lead to some of our wilder moments. It’s a dangerous sport. We know that getting in. Sometime we push it a little too far in the back of our minds.”
