LEBANON, Tenn. — Ryan Preece remained relatively tight-lipped on Saturday afternoon at Nashville Superspeedway as he discussed a lost appeal of a NASCAR-issued penalty.
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He did not agree that he should have lost 25 points and $25,000 for a wreck involving Ty Gibbs at Texas Motor Speedway, but he would not go out of his way to openly voice his frustrations with NASCAR.
"I have a lot of thoughts," Preece told the gathered media members. "Obviously, I'm looking forward to racing here this weekend, and it's just...it is what it is."
— Ryan Preece (@RyanPreece_) May 31, 2026
The penalty followed two run-ins at Texas Motor Speedway. The first did not involve Gibbs and Preece making contact, but it led to some angry comments over the radio. Preece did not appreciate how Gibbs had raced him, which he made clear.
Later in the race, Gibbs' car slammed into the outside wall. The replay showed that Preece raced behind him, but the RFK Racing driver remained adamant that he did not make contact. He later told media that he could have lifted, but he chose not to.
The appeal hearing took place on Wednesday as teams prepared to head to Nashville Superspeedway. The panel did not reach a unanimous decision but decided to uphold the original penalties after saying that neither NASCAR nor RFK Racing clearly proved their point.
Big trouble for Ty Gibbs! https://t.co/UwuzcizHbH pic.twitter.com/q9QfjhUoJy
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 3, 2026
"Through that entire process of the past couple weeks, Derrick Finley, my crew chief, as well as quite a few other people, pulled together a lot of compelling data," Preece said. "And Chip (Bowers, RFK Racing president) looked at it and said this is absolutely worth appealing over.
"And so I thank him. He knows I'm a very passionate person about racing, put a lot into it, and when I say, 'I didn't do something,' I didn't."
Support from RFK Racing aside, the lost appeal means that Preece is now on The Chase cutline. He holds the 16th and final spot entering Sunday night's race at Nashville Superspeedway, and he sits 15 points ahead of Austin Cindric.
Preece has 13 weeks to make up for this penalty, which he said is essentially a DNF in a regular-season race. He said that a driver needs to essentially average 26 points per race to make The Chase. He lost that amount in a single penalty.
"Honestly, I'm not too concerned," he said. "I like the fact that it puts us in this situation of playing offense more than being concerned about, 'Hey, we need to keep it in 12th or hopefully above.'
"So now we got to fight, fight to go forward. That's where our goals are."
This fight will continue on Sunday night with the Cracker Barrel 400. Preece will line up 28th after inclement weather washed out Saturday's qualifying session.
