NASCAR Driver Ryan Preece Gets Medical Clearance To Return Home After Terrifying Crash At Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Ryan Preece, the NASCAR driver whose car rolled nearly a dozen times following a harrowing incident at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday, was on his way home about 12 hours later after being released from the hospital.

Stewart-Haas Racing said Preece was returning to North Carolina after Halifax Health Medical Centre doctors cleared him. According to the team, Preece was “awake, alert, and mobile” and “had been communicating with family and friends.”

Preece, 32, got out of his damaged No. 41 Ford with assistance on Saturday night before being loaded onto a cart and taken to an ambulance. He was taken to the track’s infield care center before being sent to Halifax Health for overnight observation.

“If you want to be a race car driver, you better be tough,” Preece tweeted roughly two hours after the race. “I’ll be back.”

Coming out of Turn 4, Preece and SHR teammate Chase Briscoe made contact, and Preece’s car veered hard left and then went into an uncontrollable barrel roll as soon as it slid from the asphalt to the infield grass. The vehicle came to a stop on all four tires, with minor damage to the roll cage.

Ryan Preece, the NASCAR driver whose car rolled nearly a dozen times following a harrowing incident at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday.

Preece’s ability to climb out with assistance was a credit to NASCAR’s Next-Gen car, regarded as the safest incarnation in the series’ 75-year history.

Following its debut in 2022, the automobile was heavily criticized because rear-impact incidents wreaked havoc on drivers. Kurt Busch of 23XI Racing sustained a life-altering injury during a qualifying incident at Pocono Raceway last summer, and Alex Bowman of Hendrick Motorsports missed five races due to a concussion.

Several other drivers spoke about the violence they felt during what they thought were regular collisions, and they questioned if they, too, had experienced brain trauma.

NASCAR spent much of last year and the offseason testing and fine-tuning their car to reduce the G-forces supplied to drivers. The adjustments were well received, with fewer missing races and no reported concussions in 2023.

Meanwhile, Busch has yet to race again and formally retired from the Cup Series on Saturday at Daytona. Busch, 45, wiped back tears as he announced his retirement, saying his “body is just having a battle with Father Time.”

Preece’s ability to climb out with assistance was a credit to NASCAR’s Next-Gen car, regarded as the safest incarnation in the series’ 75-year history.

Busch also mentioned that he’s been dealing with arthritis and gout while trying to recover from a head injury that rocked stock car racing a year ago.

Preece’s crash brought back memories of Ryan Newman’s terrifying crash in the 2020 Daytona 500. Newman was able to leave the hospital a few days later, a tribute to the safety enhancements implemented by NASCAR after Dale Earnhardt’s death on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.

SOURCE – (AP)