Stewart-Haas Racing officials announced at 2:20 am Sunday that Berlin native and former NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Ryan Preece would remain hospitalized overnight at Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona, Fla. following a terrifying crash late Saturday during the NASCAR Cup Series event at Daytona International Speedway.
The statement from team read: “NASCAR Cup Series driver Ryan Preece will remain overnight at Halifax Health Medical Center for continued observation. The driver of the No. 41 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing is awake, alert and mobile and has been communicating with family and friends. Preece will undergo another evaluation by medical personnel later this morning. An update will be provided in the afternoon.”
With five laps remaining in Saturday’s event at Daytona, Preece’s car turned abruptly left and then got sideways into the grass on the backstretch. While traveling sideways the car got airborne beginning a horrifying sequence of flips before coming to rest on all four wheels.
Emergency crews removed Preece from the car. Preece, a Berlin native and former NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion, could be seen on camera during the NBC broadcast standing up with emergency officials. He was then placed on a stretcher.
NASCAR announced at 11:04 pm Saturday that Preece had been transported to a local hospital following the terrifying and violent wreck.
A post from Preece’s race update social media account at 11:24 pm read: “Ryan was transported to a local hospital where he is undergoing standard tests, he is awake, alert and obviously shaken.”
At 11:52 pm the following was posted on Preece’s official X (formerly Twitter) account: “If you want to be a race car driver, you better be tough. Dammit. Fast @racechoice @FordPerformance Mustang. I’m coming back.”
I’m counting something like 16 rotations. What’s the record?
We have all seen a lot if terrifying crashes on superspeedways.
But I have to say, even though I’ve seen cars spin in the air, and do pirouettes, I can’t recall ver seeing one spin that fast in the air, for that long. Just terrifying.
Wishing Ryan the best. This will take a while to come back from, if ever, imo. Wow.
THIS is why I HATE these Superspeedways. This ain’t racing