By David Morgan, Associate Editor
Ryan Preece called his shot and got the penalty flag thrown at him for it.
NASCAR announced on Tuesday that it was docking Preece 25 points and fining him $50,000 for a run-in that he and Ty Gibbs had during Sunday’s Wurth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway.
The animosity between the two began early on in the race when they were battling for position, causing Preece to come over the radio and light into the driver of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
“What a f****** idiot that kid is. He is so lucky his car is so f****** fast,” Preece exclaimed.
A short time later after the caution flag flew, Preece called his shot on Gibbs, going on a rant about his plans.
“Alright, when I get to that 54, I’m done with him. F****** idiot. It’s just…that car is so f****** fast. F****** pisses me off. Stupid. I can’t.
“I’m going to vent for 15 seconds. I can’t stand with idiots like him have fast race cars that they can do stupid s*** and get away with it. End of rant.”
Then on lap 102, Preece followed through with his warning, giving Gibbs a bump into Turn 3, sending him spinning into the outside wall. Day over.
Big trouble for Ty Gibbs! https://t.co/UwuzcizHbH pic.twitter.com/q9QfjhUoJy
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 3, 2026
“Everything good in there?” Preece’s crew radioed afterwards.
“Yeah, never touched him,” he responded.
However, that’s not how some of the other drivers on track saw it. Shane Van Gisbergen, who was running behind the pair provided his own commentary of what he saw transpire out of his windshield.
“Holy s***! He just committed a murder!” van Gisbergen said with a laugh. “It looked like he just full-throttled him!”
Gibbs would be credited with a 36th place finish while Preece went on to finish the race in 14th.
Since the checkered flag flew in Texas, Preece has stuck to his convictions about what took place between himself and Gibbs, explaining his side of things on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Monday night.
“There’s moments that there are people that you can race with respect around and cut breaks to. Like, I can think of multiple times yesterday instead of putting another driver in a pretty tough spot. You make the decision not to do that,” said Preece.
“I just grew up racing against people. I learned that lesson a long, long time ago when I was a lot younger. Sometimes I question if those same lessons…
“For me, it was more along the lines of he almost—or pretty much—was very close [to being] clear getting into three. And I could lift, but I didn’t. You know, 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. So I’ve got a little bit of a short fuse with him and how we’re racing.
“And that was just one of those situations. Could I cut him a break? Probably could’ve. But ultimately, I didn’t feel like I hit him. He got loose and from there on, unfortunately he wrecked.”
On NASCAR’s Hauler Talk podcast, NASCAR vice president of race communications Mike Forde explained why the sanctioning body felt compelled to levy the penalty to Preece.
“In the review on this one, we do look at all available resources as we always say. Whether that’s the video, in-car audio, SMT data, so on and so forth. And really what this came down to is…he said what he said and then he did what he said,” said Forde.
“So, in our view, it was intentionally wrecking another vehicle. That’s where we landed.”
Forde likened the penalty to the one handed down to Denny Hamlin for wrecking Ross Chastain at Phoenix in March of 2023 and then all but fessing up to it on his own podcast the next day, with NASCAR levying the same penalty of 25 points and a $50,000 fine.
Preece and RFK Racing can appeal the penalty if they so choose to.
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