The Watkins Glen is almost here, but the heat from the Texas race penalty for Ryan Preece has still not died down.

Preece walked away from Texas with a hefty $50,000 fine and a 25-point penalty for 'intentionally' taking out Ty Gibbs on lap 102. However, RFK Racing has appealed the decision. 

Releasing a statement, the team said, “RFK Racing has decided to appeal the penalties issued by NASCAR against Ryan Preece. We appreciate the opportunity to share our findings with the National Motorsports Appeal Panel at the appropriate time.”

The penalty was issued after NASCAR analyzed the radio and SMT data. The incident took place on lap 102 when Ty Gibbs moved towards the inside just ahead of Preece when it appeared that the RFK driver nudged Gibbs from the back, spinning him into the wall on the outside. 

NASCAR’s key evidence, based on which they levied the penalties, was a radio recording of Preece expressing his frustration with Gibbs several laps earlier. 

Preece said, “I can’t stand when idiots like him have fast race cars, and they can do stupid s*** and get away with it. When I get to that #54, I’m done with him.” 

"I try to race everybody with an amount of respect that I’d like in return. And when you don’t do that, I’m not gonna cut you a break. And that’s what happened,” he also said after the race.

NASCAR Cup Series Managing Director Brad Moran said, “We get reports throughout the entire event. It’s not uncommon that we would hear long before the incident happened, some of the conversations that were being had. Once we reviewed everything, it would have been pretty hard for us (not) to say that was a little bit of aggressive racing.”

Moran draws similarities to Hamlin-Chastain incident

This isn’t the first time NASCAR has come up with penalties on drivers based on things that have either been said in the build-up to incidents or much later, even several days after the race. 

“This was very similar to the same penalty that was handed out to Denny Hamlin a few years back with Ross Chastain,” said Moran on SiriusXM. 

The incident between Hamlin and Chastain took place at Phoenix Raceway in 2023, when Hamlin took out Chastain, and later, on his Actions Detrimental podcast, said he wanted to take him out because of past incidents between the two. 

Hamlin recalled the incident in context to the Texas race, “When I said that I washed Chsstain up into the wall, I got a point fine. But in the end, it was because I said it.”

Hamlin was hit with the same $50,000 and 25-point deduction. Moran suggested it was similar in the case of Preece because he had stated earlier, not as clearly, his intent to take out Ty Gibbs.

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason