Career Day For Preece At ‘Dega Erased By Post-Race DQ

Ryan Preece was disqualified from a runner-up finish Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway. (Jacob Seelman/Race Face Digital photo)

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Ryan Preece finally had a superspeedway race where all four tires stayed on the ground and the car was pointing in the right direction at the checkered flag, only to have everything fall apart during post-race inspection.

Preece was one of two cars disqualified after a relatively calm Sunday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway, with his No. 60 Celsius Ford found to have violated Rule 14.5.8.F, having three spoiler shims instead of two as mandated by the NASCAR Rule Book.

He originally took the checkered flag a career-best second behind winner Austin Cindric, but was relegated to 38th by the DQ.

Things were looking good with 15 laps left. As the final round of green flag pit stops concluded, Preece cycled out in the fifth position, behind leader Austin Cindric and a trio of Hendrick Motorsports Chevys in William Byron, Kyle Larson, and Alex Bowman.

As the finish grew nearer, moves were made throughout the pack, and a second line opened briefly in the middle lane inside of seven to go. Preece jumped up in front of Byron after a push from Joey Logano, and began drag racing with Cindric from that point on.

Despite a wreck seeming imminent at any moment, the field of 34 kept its composure and raced back to the finish without incident. When all was said and done, Cindric crossed the line just .022 seconds ahead of Preece, the closest finish of the NASCAR Cup Series season across the line so far.

“We did all we could. I felt like we executed stage three exactly like we needed to,” Preece said prior to news of the DQ coming out. “We came out in the front of our group and worked our way through that traffic. We had the opportunity to get to the top lane, and then from there, it was just managing those cars behind us and not giving up what we gained.

“It’s not easy to do this. I felt like this was the most aggressive I’ve raced on a superspeedway, pushing the issues,” he continued. “You have to figure out who’s going to have that fast car, and obviously, it was all Fords today. I’m really proud of everybody at RFK for this race car. I’m just super appreciative of Jack (Roush, co-owner), Brad (Keselowski, co-owner), and the Fenway Group for this opportunity. Without Kroger, BAM, Celsius, and a lot of our other partners, I’d probably be back in Connecticut.

“I’m really excited about the rest of this year. It’s a great day, but I wanted to win.”

The runner-up finish would have been the best finish of the season for RFK Racing, in addition to being Preece’s best result at the sport’s top level. Preece also lost the five bonus points he earned at the end of stage two as well because of the technical violation.

Instead of jumping to 12th in the regular season standings, 28 points clear of the playoff cut line, Preece leaves Talladega 18th in points and 14 markers behind AJ Allmendinger for a postseason berth through 10 races.

Preece’s best result remains third place on two occasions, once earlier this year at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway and in 2019 during the spring Talladega race.

It’s just the latest instance of superspeedway racing being less than kind to the Berlin, Conn., driver.

In 2023, Preece was involved in a heavy collision with Kyle Larson that actually bent some of the roll cage on the right-side door panels in the spring Talladega event.

Then that August at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway, Preece was spun with less than 10 laps to go. As he hit the grassy infield on the backstretch, his car lifted off the ground and flipped violently, almost a dozen times.

Most recently, Preece was involved in a scary accident in this year’s Daytona 500, once again going over on the backstretch. While Preece emerged from all three incidents relatively unscathed, he’s still not shied away from scrutinizing NASCAR over car safety.

“I think the thing that I want to say as a father [and] a racer is [that] we keep beating on a door hoping for a different result … I think we know where there’s a problem on superspeedways,” Preece said after his most recent Daytona crash.

“I don’t want to be the example of when [a big crash] finally does get someone [hurt or killed]. I don’t want it to be me.”

Fortunately, Sunday was rather calm, at least on the racetrack. Two incidents in the first stage knocked out Preece’s teammates, Chris Buescher and Keselowski, but no major multi-car crash took place down the stretch.

Instead, the drama came hours after the checkered flag, erasing Preece’s positive momentum and what would have been a potential defining moment in his season thus far.

Original fifth-place finisher Joey Logano was also disqualified for a spoiler violation after the race, though Logano’s DQ was for a missing spoiler bolt under Rules 14.5.8.E and 14.1.P.

Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega kicked off a record 28 consecutive weeks of Cup Series action, with the next stop coming at Texas Motor Speedway.

Coverage of the Wurth 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY starts Sunday, May 4 at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.