Ryan Preece was penalized 25 points and fined $50,000 following an incident with Joe Gibbs Racing driver Ty Gibbs in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Preece, driver of the No. 60 RFK Racing Ford, was penalized under Sections 4.3 and 4.4.A in the NASCAR Rule Book, which state NASCAR’s member conduct guidelines and specifically list “wrecking or spinning another vehicle, whether or not that vehicle is removed from competition as a result” as a potentially punishable offense.
MORE: Texas results | Cup standings
Preece appeared to contact the back bumper of Gibbs’ No. 54 Toyota at Lap 101 of the Würth 400 entering Turn 3. That move sent Gibbs sliding into the SAFER barrier and ultimately ended his day with a 36th-place finish. Preece radioed to his team during the race that he felt he did not touch Gibbs’ car.
The incident followed vocal frustration from Preece, who took exception to an aggressive move Gibbs made entering Turn 1 during Stage 1.
“All right, when I get to that 54, I’m done with him. [Expletive] idiot,” Preece said in part.
RELATED: Gibbs’ take on contact | In-car view from Preece
Preece appeared on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s “Late Shift” Monday night — prior to Tuesday’s penalty announcement — and further explained to hosts Brad Gillie and Todd Gordon what led to the moment on-track.
“There are people that you know you can race with respect around and cut breaks to,” Preece said. “Like I can think of multiple times yesterday that instead of putting another driver in a pretty tough spot, you make the decision not to do that. And I feel like I just grew up racing against people that I learned that lesson a long, long time ago, when I was a lot younger. And sometimes I question if those same lessons are learned by the time you get to Cup.
“So for me, it was more along the lines of he pretty much was very close to clear getting into (Turn) 3, and I could lift, but I didn’t.
“I was right there and I felt like he came down, and I was not going to cut him a break because in the past, him and I have had problems. So I’ve got a little bit of a short fuse with him and I, with how we’re racing. And that was just one of those situations that, could I cut him a break? Probably could have, but I didn’t. And ultimately, I didn’t feel like I hit him. I felt like I stayed right on him, and he got loose, and from there on, unfortunately, he wrecked.”
The 25-point penalty drops Preece one spot in the points standings to 13th, 38 points above the provisional cutline of the 16-driver field for The Chase.
RFK Racing released a statement on social media Thursday that it will appeal the penalties issued to Preece.
Statement on Ryan Preece’s Penalty. pic.twitter.com/1S5eJKvwlu
— RFK Racing (@RFKracing) May 7, 2026