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Ryan Preece Reacts To NASCAR’s Penalty Against Him For Incident With Ty Gibbs

May 9, 2026  ·
  John Trent

Ryan Preece addressed the penalty that NASCAR levied against him following an incident with Ty GIbbs at Texas Motor Speedway last Sunday.

Preece spoke to the press ahead of qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen, “I’m thankful that NASCAR has an appeals process so that I feel that I can be heard and let that process play itself out.”

When asked if NASCAR explained its position to him ahead of the penalty, he said, “I was on my mower, mowing my lawn at about 4:30 in a not very great signaled area so I just kind of saw I had a missed call. So when I made the call back I found out that I had a penalty. At that point, I’m thankful for RFK. I’m thankful for Chip. I’m thankful for everybody there for the support. I’m thankful for having Chris and Brad as teammates for being great teammates like they are, and I’m excited to go through the appeals process. Because like I said at least I can feel like I can go through it and share my side.”

Preece was also questioned by FOX Sports reporter Bob Pockrass if he will be as honest on the radio and in interviews if he does not win the appeal. He replied, “You know, at the beginning of the season we were talked about being ourselves. So I’m not going to change being myself, but what I can say is I’m excited about the appeals process and I look forward to going through that.”

NASCAR penalized Preece for violating Sections 4.3 and 4.4.A of its rulebook, which states that “wrecking or spinning another vehicle, whether or not that vehicle is removed from competition as a result” is a punishable offense. 

On Hauler Talk, NASCAR’s Managing Director of Racing Communications Mike Forde explained that the penalty was issued based on Preece’s in-car communications about Gibbs , “He said what he said and then he did what he said. So in our view it was intentionally wrecking another vehicle. That’s where we landed. … He can appeal. That appeal process will play out. We’ll have that process at the R&D Center and we’ll see where that goes if there is an appeal.”

Following a restart on lap 101, Gibbs spun hard into the wall seemingly off the nose of Ryan Preece. As the two were coming through turns 3 and 4, Gibbs spun with Preece right on his bumper and slammed hard into the outside wall while the two were racing each other back around the 20th position.

Preece had previously expressed frustration with Gibbs earlier in the race. He was heard on the radio saying, “What a [expletive] idiot that kid is! He is so lucky his car is so [expletive] fast!”

After a caution flew, Preece then promised, “Alright, when I get to that 54, I’m done with him. [Expletive] idiot. … That car is so [expletive] fast. [Expletive] pisses me off. Stupid. I’m gonna vent for 15 seconds. I can’t stand when idiots like him have fast race cars that they can do stupid [expletive] and get away with it. End of rant.”

After Gibbs wrecked, Preece said over the radio, “Never touched him.” He also said that, “He can come on over and see me later.”

Following the race, Preece told FrontStretch, “I’ll be honest with you. I hate that he wrecked, but decisions you make on the race track there are repercussions. And I try to race everybody with an amount of respect that I like in return and when you don’t do that, I’m not going to cut you a break. And that’s what happened.”

He reiterated his belief that he never touched Gibbs in an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, “Basically, I’ll just kinda put it the way I said in the post-race interview yesterday, which is: There’s moments that there are people that you can race with respect around and cut breaks to. I can think of multiple times yesterday that instead of putting another driver in a pretty tough spot you make the decision not to do that. I just grew up racing against people that I learned that lesson a long long time ago when I was a lot younger. Sometimes I question if those same lessons are learned by the time you get to Cup.

“So for me, it was more along the lines, he almost or pretty much was very close clear getting into 3 and I could lift, but I didn’t. I was right there and I felt like he came down and I was not going to cut him a break because in the past him and I have had problems,” he continued. “I’ve got a little bit of a short fuse with him and I and how we’re racing. And that was just one of those situations that could I cut him a break? Probably could’ve, but I didn’t.”

Preece then reiterated that he didn’t think he made contact with Gibbs, “And ultimately I didn’t feel like I hit him. I felt like I stayed right on him and he got loose and from there on unfortunately he wrecked. But I think that’s just the way it is. The decisions you make on the race track, people are going to make their decisions back. And that’s just the way racing is. That’s no different than what is from what you see at your local race tracks of people there or regionally or whatever it is. It’s been around as long as time. It’s kind of an unwritten code or unspoken thing. That’s kind of the way it went down.”

Forde indicated that the one of the reasons why it punished Preece and not Kyle Busch was due to his comments over the radio. He was asked, “Does it just come down to the fact that the difference between this and Preece was there is no audio, there is no evidence of him vowing retribution and acting on it? That’s the difference?”

Forde replied, “That’s the difference. And the SMT data was different too. There was no audio that came out and said, ‘I’m going to wreck the 42.’ And then he wrecked the 42. So that’s one. And then two, is the SMT data that showed-. Well, one, it didn’t show anything that suggested that he did do it, and also the fact that his steering was so jacked it showed at least there was a plausible chance that his car had some damage that led to what happened.”

RFK Racing announced to social media on May 7th that it would appeal the penalty, “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 Appeals Panel at the appropriate time,” it added. “Additionally, our organization respectfully embraces the forum provided by NASCAR to present our case.”

Due to the penalty, Preece is now 13th in the points standings. He 253 points behind current leader Tyler Reddick. He has a 38 point advantage over Joey Logano, who currently sits in the 17th position, one spot out of the cutoff line for the Chase.

NEXT: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Reacts To NASCAR Penalizing Ryan Preece: “I Don’t Agree With This One”

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Author: John Trent