For the second time in two years, Ryan Preece went airborne in a terrifying crash on the backstretch at Daytona International Speedway.
Preece, who was making his Daytona 500 debut with Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, caught air after his No. 60 Ford was hit on the right side by Christopher Bell on Lap 197.
His car went up and traveled solely on its rear wheels for a few seconds before then flipping over and landing on its roof. His Mustang then turned over while sliding up the banking and slammed into the outside wall. After the rear-end contact, the car flipped back on its wheels.
After walking away from the crash, Preece was checked and released from the care center.
“Yeah I don’t know if it’s the diffuser or what that makes these cars like a sheet of plywood when you walk out on a windy day,” Preece told Fox Sports. “But when the car took off like that, it got real quiet. All I thought about was my daughter, so I’m lucky to walk away, but we’re getting really close to somebody not being able to, so I’m very grateful.
“That sucks. I mean this thing was fast. It’s frustrating when you end your day like this.”
Feb 16, 2025; Daytona Beach, Florida, USA; NASCAR Cup Series driver Ryan Preece (60) gets airborne after a wreck during the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
Ryan Preece’s car goes airborne late in the Daytona 500 (Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images).
Bell said no one was at fault for a wreck that he called a byproduct of the necessity to ram other cars at 200 mph.
“Just superspeedway racing,” he said. “That’s how it goes. It takes pushes. You’ve got to be pushing otherwise you’re going backwards. I was in position and that’s all you can ask for. “I had my hands full for a while. It’s Daytona. You have to be doing that otherwise you’re not going to be going forward. It’s a product of the racing that we have here.”
Preece later told reporters that he wanted to send a message to NASCAR as a father and racer.
“We keep beating on a door hoping for a different result,” Preece said “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 2-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.”
Preece said the incident felt worse than his previous crash at Daytona in which he barrel-rolled 10 times down the backstretch.
“With the hit like that, I don’t think it should have gone airborne,” he said. “I’m just not very happy. We had a really fast car, but you can only do so much when everybody stacks up.”
Preece was hospitalized overnight for observation after the crash in the Aug. 26, 2023 race at Daytona International Speedway.
His No. 41 Ford skidded over the Le Mans Chicane curbing and went tumbling violently through the backstretch grass.
NASCAR, which owns the Daytona track, conducted a safety review that resulted in paving the backstretch grass after last year’s Daytona 500 and making alterations to the previous curbing and concrete pads.
