An incident between Ryan Preece and Ty Gibbs ultimately ended Gibbs’ day early Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway and carried into post-race discourse.
Tight-quarters racing led Preece to Gibbs’ rear bumper, which sent Gibbs into the wall in Turns 3 and 4 at Lap 101, his No. 54 Toyota spinning sideways and slamming the SAFER barrier.
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Though the spin may not have been intentional — “Never touched him,” Preece radioed — Preece said Gibbs’ earlier on-track actions built up frustration. An aggressive move by the 23-year-old Gibbs angered Preece entering Turn 1 as Gibbs made a late charge to Preece’s left. When the two raced near each other again on a Stage 2 restart, Preece surged to the rear bumper of Gibbs’ No. 54 Toyota, resulting in a ride for Gibbs.
“I’ll be honest with you. I hate that he wrecked, but decisions you make on the race track, there are repercussions,” Preece told Frontstretch after the race. “And I try to race everybody with an amount of respect that I’d like in return. And when you don’t do that, I’m not gonna cut you a break. And that’s what happened.”
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The Turn 1 dive triggered an eventual rant over the in-car radio from Preece: “What a [expletive] idiot that kid is. He is so lucky his car is so [expletive] fast. … All right, when I get to that 54, I’m done with him. [Expletive] idiot. That car is so [expletive] fast, [expletive] pisses me off. Stupid. I’m gonna vent for 15 seconds. I can’t stand when idiots like him have fast race cars that they can do stupid [expletive] and get away with it. End of rant.”
Gibbs briefly continued and made minimum speed, but eventually drove to the Texas garage and retired from the race as the damage to his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was too severe.
WATCH: In-car cameras, team radios during incident
“I haven’t seen the replay. It broke one of the little welds on the front clip, so it probably wasn’t the best decision to go back out,” Gibbs said. “We weren’t going to be fast, so we’ll go racing next week.”
Upon seeing Preece’s rant transcribed on social media, Gibbs was less than impressed.
“Hmm, at least he is honest,” Gibbs wrote on X, adding an eye-roll emoji and a cheers. He also reposted video of Preece’s in-car radio rant.
Ultimately, Preece continued to finish 14th while Gibbs finished 36th, his first DNF on a non-drafting track this season but his second consecutive crash-out after a Talladega wreck last weekend.
The NASCAR Cup Series returns to action next Sunday, May 10, at Watkins Glen International (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).