Ryan Preece’s wallet is $50,000 lighter, and the driver of the No. 60 RFK Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse has lost 25 driver points toward his goal of making the NASCAR Cup Series Chase for the Cup.
On Tuesday evening, NASCAR dished out penalties for Preece for violating the NASCAR Member Code of Conduct due to his incident with Ty Gibbs in last Sunday’s Wurth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway. NASCAR took into account radio communication from Preece, which said when he got back to Gibbs that the 54 would be done, to conclude that Preece intentionally crashed Gibbs.
“So, he said what he said, and then he did what he said. And so in our view, it was intentionally wrecking another vehicle,” NASCAR’s Mike Forde said in an episode of the Hauler Talk Podcast. “That’s where we landed.”
Forde explained that while NASCAR is frequently described as consistently inconsistent with its penalties, they felt the penalty should match what Denny Hamlin was given for intentionally crashing Ross Chastain at the end of the event at Phoenix Raceway a couple of seasons ago, an action that Hamlin would admit during a recording of his Actions Detrimental Podcast.
The penalty drops Preece from 12th in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings to 13th, and he goes from 63 points above the Chase cutline to now being just 38 points to the good after losing the 25 points.
Preece and RFK Racing do have the right to appeal the penalties attached to his incident at Texas Motor Speedway, but have not indicated if they will do so just yet.
While Preece received penalties from his situation with Gibbs at Texas Motor Speedway, Kyle Busch, who everyone expected to receive a penalty due to his dust-up with John Hunter Nemechek with two laps to go in Sunday’s race, did not receive even so much as a slap on the wrist.
According to Forde, the SMT data is largely what played a role in NASCAR not penalizing Busch for the incident with Nemechek at Texas.
“The data told us that after the incident, he was turning the wheel all the way left just to go straight,” Forde said. “So, we had a feeling that he had some pretty significant damage.”
However, even though NASCAR couldn’t conclude that Busch intentionally crashed Nemechek in Turn 3 with two laps to go in the Wurth 400, they will be having a sit-down with Busch and RCR to talk about things.
Forde continued, “Do plan to have a discussion, though, Brad Moran and company with Kyle and the rest of RCR leadership. As was pointed out several times also, this is the second time in maybe the last four weeks where there’s been discussion post-race about whether or not he should have a penalty.”
A few weeks ago, at Bristol Motor Speedway, Busch had a late-race incident with Riley Herbst, where many wondered if Busch had intentionally crashed Herbst. But again, NASCAR was unable to conclude that it was the case in that incident.
However, if this keeps being a trend, the conclusion will start to feel pretty obvious in relation to Busch.
“Maybe, let’s not have to be having this conversation as often as we are, because the benefit of the doubt is running out pretty quickly,” Forde explained. “So, we’ll have that conversation with the pertinent parties.”
For those looking to listen to the episode of Hauler Talk, where they discuss the Preece penalty and non-penalty for Kyle Busch, it is available in the Player embedded below:
In addition to the penalties assessed to Ryan Preece, NASCAR’s weekly penalty report also included a one-race suspension and $2,500 fine for Dylan Cappello, the crew chief of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports truck, which is driven by Layne Riggs.
Following the event at Texas Motor Speedway, the No. 34 Ford F-150 had multiple lug nuts not properly installed and/or secured. Front Row Motorsports will not appeal the penalty, and has announced that veteran crew chief Drew Blickensderfer will serve as Riggs’ crew chief this weekend at Watkins Glen International.
