NASCAR driver Ryan Preece was discharged from a Daytona Beach, Fla., hospital Sunday after his car did 10 midair barrel rolls the previous night during a Cup Series race.
Preece's team, Stewart-Haas Racing, said Sunday that the 32-year-old was heading back to his home in North Carolina. Early that morning, the team had described Preece as "awake, alert, and mobile," as well as in communication with his family and friends.
Even by the standards of the Cup Series, Preece's crash at Daytona International Speedway was remarkably violent. As a pack of cars came out of a turn on the 156th lap of the scheduled 160-lap race, Preece's No. 41 Ford appeared to be contacted from behind by the No. 43 Chevrolet of Erik Jones. Preece's car veered sharply to the left across the face of teammate Chase Briscoe's No. 14 Ford, which was collected in the crash, and turned backward as it skidded across the infield grass.
Preece's car then began to lift into the air, and what resulted was a terrifying spectacle that ultimately served as a testament to the safety measures implemented in NASCAR's Next Gen cars. After his Ford bounced off the turf and lifted high into the air several times while repeatedly rolling over, Preece was able to climb out of it and stand alongside the wrecked vehicle before he was placed on a stretcher as a precaution and taken to an ambulance.
"If you want to be a race car driver, you better be tough. . . . I'm coming back," Preece wrote later that evening on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Preece had been in a must-win situation in terms of his hopes of making it into the 16-driver playoffs, but he finished 10 spots out of the postseason. The Daytona race, the final event of the Cup Series regular season, was won by Chris Buescher of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing.
"Ryan is a good friend of mine," Buescher said after the race. "While we were in Victory Lane, we got word that he's at the hospital, that they're running through a lot of stuff and that he's doing well. That's good to hear."
In his sixth Cup Series season since 2015, Preece still seeks his first race win at NASCAR's top level. He has two victories in both the Xfinity Series and the Truck Series.
"Appreciative of how safe our racecars are," Buescher, 30, said after Saturday's victory gave him five Cup Series wins since 2015. "I think, as an industry, that sometimes we forget it's dangerous still. That can certainly lead to some of our wilder moments. It's a dangerous sport."
By Sunday afternoon, Preece's wife shared on Facebook that their baby was "happy to be back in her dad's arms."
"I'm just thankful the three of us are together today," wrote Heather Preece.
