Following Monday’s Crayon 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Ryan Preece was clearly upset with Michael McDowell, after an on-track incident that destroyed any chance of the Stewart-Haas Racing driver scoring a solid result.
During the final stage of the event, Preece and McDowell were battling for a position inside the top-15, when contact from McDowell to Preece, forced the No. 41 Ford Mustang into the outside wall, and eventually back to the pits for an unscheduled pit stop.
A closer look at what happened on the track between @RyanPreece_ and @Mc_Driver during the final stage. pic.twitter.com/cVdjSXXuwr
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 17, 2023
“He has every right to be mad,” McDowell told Dustin Long of NBC Sports. “He pulled a slider on me in [turns] three and four, and slid up, and I got back underneath him, and when I drove to the bottom on the flat – when I made my downshift, I just didn’t get a good downshift, and I got loose and came up, hit him and put him in the wall.”
McDowell would go on to score a respectable 13th-place result, finishing on the lead lap in his No. 34 The Pete Store Ford Mustang for Front Row Motorsports. Meanwhile, an unscheduled pit stop relegated Preece to a finish of 28th, one lap down.
“That’s completely, 100 percent my fault,” McDowell continued. “I understand why he’s upset. It was a mistake, but it doesn’t matter to him, a mistake cost him a finish, right? So intent in our sport even though it matters, it doesn’t matter at the moment because he got a poor finish because I hit him.”
After the race, @Mc_Driver caught up with @RyanPreece_ for a post-race discussion. pic.twitter.com/TUzlfJyi2x
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 17, 2023
After the race, McDowell went to have a discussion with Preece, where the Stewart-Haas Racing driver was clearly irate, expressing his side of what happened during the race’s final stage, in a fashion that seemed to display a great deal of anger.
@RyanPreece_ @Mc_Driver @jeff_gluck @bobpockrass pic.twitter.com/qVvHEuWcDx
— KO__ (@K_O___21) July 17, 2023
This was just moments after Preece had approached McDowell on pit road at his No. 34 Ford Mustang and had a heated discussion with his fellow Ford Performance driver. McDowell then ran after Preece to discuss further.
Regardless, with the rumors circulating that these two drivers could end up being teammates at Stewart-Haas Racing in 2024, there may need to be an increased effort to work this all out and get along.
