RFK Racing will appeal the penalties NASCAR assessed Ryan Preece for an incident between him and Ty Gibbs at Texas Motor Speedway in Sunday’s Wurth 400.
“We appreciate the opportunity to share our findings with the National Motorsports Appeals Panel at the appropriate time,” RFK Racing said in a statement released Thursday evening. “Additionally, our organization respectfully embraces the forum provided by NASCAR to present our case.”
Tuesday evening, NASCAR assessed Preece a $50,000 fine and the loss of 25 driver points for spinning Gibbs into the third-turn wall on lap 101 of the 267-lap race. The incident eliminated Gibbs from the race and relegated him to a 36th-place finish in the 38-car field. Preece finished 14th.
NASCAR Cup Series Managing Director Brad Moran says NASCAR issued the penalty after reviewing audio, video and SMT data.
“This was very similar to the same penalty that was handed out to Denny Hamlin a few years back with Ross Chastain,” Moran said Wednesday on SiriusXM’s The Morning Drive.
“We get reports throughout the entire event. It’s not uncommon that we would hear long before the incident happened, some of the conversations that were being had. Once we reviewed everything… it would have been pretty hard for us (not) to say that was a little bit of aggressive racing.”
Prior to Preece’s contact with Gibbs, he said on his two-way radio, “When I get to the 54 (Gibbs), I’m done with him. (Bleep) idiot! … I can’t stand when idiots like him have fast race cars that they can do stupid (bleep) and get away with it!”
After Gibbs spun, as he headed to pit road, he said over his radio, “I’ll get him (Preece) another time.”
The Preece/Gibbs incident wasn’t the only one that caught NASCAR’s attention. Headed for the white flag, there was a door banging incident between Kyle Busch and John Hunter Nemechek that sent Nemechek into the wall. Both finished the race and within one position of each other. Busch finished 20th and Nemechek 21st. Moran said no penalties were assessed in that incident after everything was reviewed because it was determined Busch’s car was difficult to turn because of damage sustained when his Chevrolet hit the outside wall.
“They went down into turn three on the last lap and everything we looked at we felt we could not issue a penalty on all the information we had,” Moran said.
Moran said the car’s toe links will bend when hitting the wall like Busch’s did and that makes the car a “handful.”
“Going into the corner for the first time with a damaged car, we took that as part of the information that led us not to do the penalty on the eight car (Busch),” Moran said.
Moran said NASCAR would have a discussion with Busch and Nemechek at Watkins Glen prior to this weekend’s race. He said they wanted to make sure everything was good with both drivers so something larger didn’t occur that would force NASCAR to get involved.
Moran says he knows people believe if a penalty is issued for one incident, it should be assessed for the other, but that’s not the way NASCAR operates.
“We look at every incident individually,” said Moran, who noted audio, video and data was used in the Busch/Nemechek incident.
In Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race, Mason Maggio and Austin Green tangled and spun in turn two. After the caution period began, Maggio restarted his car, pulled up the track in front of an emergency vehicle and nearly hit the pace car. The pace car driver took evasive action to avoid the collision. Moran said NASCAR met with Maggio and his spotter after that race.
A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association’s sports feature category. During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication’s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.
