DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — As Cole Custer watched a replay of the accident, he was aghast at the sheer violence. He gasped, then uttered an expletive and shook his head.
The replay Custer was watching wasn’t the multi-car incident that transpired in overtime of Sunday’s Daytona 500, the one that included the Haas Factory Team driver and cost him a chance to pull off an upset win in NASCAR’s crown jewel race. No, this accident involved Ryan Preece, who saw his car get struck on the right side causing it to pop a wheelie, get airborne, flip onto its roof, skid up the banking and hit the wall before flipping back onto its wheels.
The wreck bore a striking similarity to Ryan Newman’s accident on the final lap of the 2020 Daytona 500, something Custer noted as he watched the replay of Preece’s crash.
“When the car took off like that, it got real quiet and all I thought about was my daughter.” 🙏
–@RyanPreece_ after a scary moment where his car flipped in the final laps of the #Daytona500 pic.twitter.com/4xGrNY22jX
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 17, 2025
Thankfully, Preece was uninjured. But afterward, he sounded the alarm that the driver in question may not be so lucky next time.
“When the car took off like that and it got real quiet, all I thought about was my daughter,” Preece said in the Fox broadcast. “I’m lucky to walk away, but we’re getting really close to somebody not being able to.
“It’s frustrating when you end your day like this.”
Sunday marked the second time in the past four Daytona races that Preece has been in an accident involving his car getting airborne and tumbling violently.
During the 2023 Daytona summer race, Preece’s spinning car launched off curbing along the backstretch, then proceeded to flip 10 times.
He was hospitalized overnight for observation before being released the following day. He competed in NASCAR’s next race the following weekend at Darlington, though both his eyes were severely bruised and bloodshot.
As happens in most instances whenever a car gets airborne, NASCAR officials will study Preece’s car from his most recent Daytona accident. Officials have already begun coordinating when to visit RFK Racing to inspect the car, investigating whether the safety components functioned as designed and what can be done to help keep cars on the ground, then act accordingly.
Two incidents from last year exemplify how NASCAR typically responds to a harrowing crash, both of which were similar to Preece’s.
Ryan Preece also got airborne in the 2023 Daytona summer race. “We’re getting really close to somebody not being able to (walk away),” Preece said Sunday. (Sean Gardner / Getty Images)
During a race at Michigan, Corey LaJoie’s car flipped on its roof, skidded across the track, then flipped multiple times after catching the transition from asphalt to grass. The next week during the summer Daytona race, Josh Berry’s car flipped on its roof and skidded, nose first, into an inside retaining wall.
Both LaJoie and Berry were OK.
Many within the garage have asked whether it’s a coincidence or a trend that multiple cars have flipped, skidded across the track, then flipped again. Nonetheless, that it’s happened three times within the past six months raises eyebrows.
“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 said Sunday, referring to the device that accelerates the flow of air under the car to increase downforce when the car is on the track.
After the crashes by LaJoie and Berry, NASCAR instituted several modifications with the intent of better keeping cars on the ground and protecting drivers.
On Sunday night, Berry offered a suggestion in a post on X on how he’d like NASCAR to react with another modification intent on keeping cars on the ground.
“Needs another roof rail,” he wrote.
Ryan Preece’s car catches air before it flipped during Sunday’s wreck. “Like a sheet of plywood when you walk out on a windy day,” Preece said. (James Gilbert / Getty Images)
(Top photo of Ryan Preece’s car flipped on its hood after Sunday’s wreck: James Gilbert / Getty Images)
