DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Ryan Preece called on NASCAR to do more to prevent cars from becoming airborne during superspeedway races.
Preece took another terrifying tumble at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday, this time avoiding a trip to a hospital but nonetheless bringing safety to the forefront at the Cup Series’ most-storied track.
William Byron fortuitously missed the ferocious wrecks down the stretch at the Daytona 500 that knocked out contenders racing for the checkered flag en route to a second straight victory.
He become the first back-to-back winner since Denny Hamlin in 2019-20.
“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 two-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, to which 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.
With four laps left, Preece turned upside-down and essentially did a wheelie in his No. 60 Ford. His car flipped onto its roof and turned back onto its tires before hitting the outside wall. Preece dropped his safety net to signal to crews he was OK.
He finished 32nd.
“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.”
As the crash scuttled Preece’s chances of winning, Byron used a clean ride on his final lap to escape the chaos and race to his second straight Daytona 500 victory.
“It’s not all luck to win twice in a row,” Byron said.
Maybe not. But Byron certainly was in the right place by racing near the outside wall in overtime.
Byron took advantage of another major mess on the final lap — NASCAR did not drop the caution and let the field race to the finish — and took another, familiar burnout in Daytona International Speedway.
“It’s obviously really special,” Byron said. “It’s an amazing race, and obviously a lot of crazy racing out there tonight and just a lot of pushing and shoving.”
The 27-year-old Byron held on to win after two weather delays totaling more than 3 1/2 hours, and following President Donald Trump leading drivers on two laps around the track in his heavily armored presidential limousine known in Washington as “The Beast.”
Byron become the youngest driver to win multiple Daytona 500s, breaking the record held by Jeff Gordon.
Austin Cindric held the lead headed to the white flag when he was wiped out in crash that took out a slew of drivers that included Chase Briscoe, Denny Hamlin and Alex Bowman.
It was sixth time in the last eight Daytona 500s the race spilled into overtime, setting up Byron to become the fifth driver to win it in consecutive years.
It wouldn’t be Daytona without all the flips, slams and skids down the stretch that inevitably send the race into overtime.
Bubba Wallace, Kyle Larson, Daniel Suarez and Brad Keselowski all had their shots at victory lane spoiled, and the race was red-flagged, just 11 laps after another big one shuffled the field and knocked four former Cup Series champions out of contention.
Reigning NASCAR champion Joey Logano and Ricky Stenhouse started the multi-car melee when Logano moved to the middle and Stenhouse moved to block him. It stacked up Logano, and the accordion effect sent several cars — including ones belonging to former Cup champs Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott — sliding in every direction.
Tyler Reddick was second and two-time Daytona 500 champion Jimmie Johnson was third.
