HAMPTON, Ga. – Ryan Preece wasn’t the first — and probably won’t be the last — driver to finish a NASCAR Cup Series race going backward.
But Preece’s reversal came in wildly improbable circumstances. The world was watching. It was the last lap of the Daytona 500. And he circled much of the track in reverse after his car was damaged as calamity erupted on both ends of the speedway.
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Preece brought his car home, backing his No. 60 RFK Racing Ford across the line to finish 25th as the final car on the lead lap.
“Not ideal, by any means,” Preece said Saturday from EchoPark Speedway, where he’ll start 26th in Sunday’s Autotrader 400 (3 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN Radio, HBO Max, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, FOX One). “But, in that situation, being in that wreck on the last lap, that’s the only way the car would move. So, at that point, I do whatever it takes to get across the line. You know, if you’re in a big wreck like that and you don’t cross the line, you’re credited with a finish of where you were. I wanted to get whatever points I could get.”
Despite the weird nature of the situation, Preece said he didn’t have a major issue rolling around the speedway driving with the aid of his rear-view mirror.
“I felt like I was in control of the race car,” he said. “I think that’s number one. I communicated with the other drivers to let them know I was coming around and that I was in control. I tried to be as careful as possible to not put anybody in a bad spot.”
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Because of damage to the car, Preece couldn’t drive it forward. “It wouldn’t matter if I had tried to turn it around,” he said. “It wouldn’t move forward.”
Many in the crowd cheered on Preece’s journey, but he said he didn’t notice that element.
“I was like, ‘I just want to get this thing across the line,'” he said. “But I did see a lot of videos after.”