Ryan Preece was open about his intention to wreck Ty Gibbs after Sunday’s (May 3) NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Turns out that admission proved costly.
Preece was hit with a loss of 25 driver points and fined $50,000 for the incident, the biggest bullet point on NASCAR’s weekly penalty report released late Tuesday afternoon. The incident between the two, causing a caution on lap 102 of the 267-lap race, knocked Gibbs out of the race early and was a result of earlier contact between the two that frustrated Preece.
“I hate that he wrecked,” Preece told Frontstretch when asked if he would speak to Gibbs later. “But decisions you make on the racetrack, there are repercussions, and I try to race everybody with an amount of respect that I’d like in return. When you don’t do that, I’m not going to cut you a break. That’s what happened.”
Beyond Preece’s points penalty and fine, Front Row Motorsports incurred a penalty in the Craftsman Truck Series. The No. 34 team was hit with a fine and suspension for failing to properly secure the lug nuts on Layne Riggs‘ truck, leading to crew chief Dulan Cappello being fined $2,500 and suspended from the next truck series race.
Lastly, Tuesday’s report reinstated Peter Ensor, who was indefinitely suspended at the end of March for violating NASCAR’s substance abuse policy. Ensor last served as an engineer on Cody Ware‘s No. 51 team.
The author of Did You Notice? (Wednesdays) Tom spends his time overseeing Frontstretch’s 50+ staff members as its majority owner and Editor-in-Chief. Based outside Philadelphia, Bowles is a two-time Emmy winner in NASCAR television and has worked in racing production with FOX, TNT, and ESPN while appearing on-air for SIRIUS XM Radio and FOX Sports 1's former show, the Crowd Goes Wild. He most recently consulted with SRX Racing, helping manage cutting-edge technology and graphics that appeared on their CBS broadcasts during 2021 and 2022.
You can find Tom’s writing here, at CBSSports.com and Athlonsports.com, where he’s been an editorial consultant for the annual racing magazine for 15 years.
Paying the penalty for being honest. And he never touched him. Busch stays quiet and gets no penalty when it was pretty obvious he turned right and slammed Nemecheck.
How much did hypocrite Joe pay Nascar for this?
That’s not what the data says.
Bulls..t
Preece needs a faster car, that’s all.
No penalty for Busch? I guess it’s a good thing he picked a Legendary Motorsports Toyota to wreck, and not a Gibbs one.