WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Ryan Preece was mowing his lawn when he received a phone call that he would be docked 25 points and fined $50,000 for his run-in with Ty Gibbs at Texas Motor Speedway on May 3.
“Honestly, I’m a bit surprised,” Preece said of the penalty at Watkins Glen International. “I’m thankful that NASCAR has an appeals process, so I feel like I can be heard and let that process play out.”
At Texas, Gibbs wrecked off the No. 60’s bumper shortly after Preece said, “when I get to that No. 54, I’m done with him” on the radio. Preece also told Frontstretch after the race that he wasn’t going to cut him a break based on the way Gibbs had raced him.
Neither driver expects to have a conversation with the other — at least not until a final decision is made.
“There’s not much to talk about there,” Gibbs said. “But it sucks we got destroyed.”
“There is nothing (to speak of) right now until after an appeals process,” Preece said.
Even with the penalty, Preece stated that he won’t change a thing.
“At the beginning of the season, we were encouraged to be ourselves,” Preece explained. “I’m not going to change being myself, but what I can say is that I’m excited for the appeals process, and I look forward to going through that.”
Being thankful for the appeals process was a common theme from both Preece and RFK co-owner Brad Keselowski.
“I’m glad that there’s an appeal process,” Keselowski said. “… I’ve been a part of a couple of them, and generally I feel like they’re a pretty fair process. So it’s good that the sport has something like that to work through when there’s a difference of opinions.
“Certainly appreciate the process, and (I’m) wishing Ryan the best.”
Preece’s penalty drew some criticism, especially since Kyle Busch appeared to intentionally wreck John Hunter Nemechek with two laps to go in the same race and received no penalty. In NASCAR’s Hauler Talk podcast, it was explained NASCAR came to its conclusion on Busch because the SMT data was inconclusive and, unlike Preece, there was no intent signaled by Busch on the radio.
But still, the question remains: what is the line?
“The line’s always moving, right?” Keselowski said. “I say that in somewhat jest, because I’ve done a lot of jobs in the sport. The one job I haven’t done, and I don’t think I probably ever will, is be a NASCAR official. Watch me eat those words, but that said, man, it’s a tough job.”
At least one of the lines is signaling intent, and that is consistent with rulings NASCAR has made in the past. Erik Jones, who had a birds-eye view of the Busch-Nemechek incident at Texas, said just that.
“I think if you blatantly get on the radio and say you’re going to take someone out, you’re probably deserve a penalty,” Jones told Frontstretch. “That’s always kind of been the code in our sport at least, as long as I’ve been around.
“If you’re that brazen about it, you’re going to get a penalty.”
Gibbs echoed the same sentiment.
“If you say you’re going to wreck somebody and you do it, obviously that’s an issue NASCAR has said in the past.”
One of the past rulings was an identical penalty ($50,000 and 25 points) handed out to Denny Hamlin in 2023 after he admitted to putting Ross Chastain in the wall at Phoenix Raceway in his post-race Actions Detrimental podcast.
When Hamlin was asked if he thought the Preece penalty was consistent, he said that “every incident is a little bit different,” and that it’s “tough to say.”
“(NASCAR’s) just making the decision they think is right.”
Hamlin’s penalty was upheld on appeal.
The dates of the appeal hearings for RFK and Preece have yet to be announced, but they will attempt the same and hope to get the penalty overturned or, at the very least, downsized. But if NASCAR’s past rulings are any indication, they might have a difficult road ahead of them.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf