Ryan Preece shared his frustrations after his day was ended during NASCAR Overtime at Circuit of the Americas on Sunday.
Ryan Preece via Skewcar YouTube
Preece was running in the top 10 during the first attempt at NASCAR Overtime. However, he would get pushed way to the outside coming into Turn 1. As he attempted to stay on the track and avoid the gravel that sits off the racing surface, Ty Gibbs hit him in the rear and sent him spinning across his nose into Noah Gragson.
After hitting Gragson, it appears he hit the No. 38 of Todd Gilliland. Austin Cindric, with nowhere to go, also appears to have hit Preece’s car on the driver side door.
Following the accident, his car was destroyed with Kurt Busch in the announcer’s booth saying, “That thing’s ready for the chop yard.”
Preece’s day ended following the wreck. He ended up finishing in 32nd.
Ryan Preece via Skewcar YouTube
Following the conclusion of the race he expressed his frustration with his fellow competitors on Twitter writing, “What a bunch of Hacks.”
Ryan Preece Twitter
He further explained his thoughts speaking to Fronstretch telling the outlet, “I got wrecked by a bunch of hacks.”
Preece elaborated, “You want to know what this is? This comes down to a lack of respect. I get so frustrated because growing up a lot of these guys they just pay their way and they don’t respect cars. And what happens going into turn 1, they just run into everyone, and they ruin days.”
He concluded saying, “So someone needs an ass-kicking. That’s for sure.”
Preece isn’t the only driver to express frustration at the lack of respect from his fellow competitors. Kyle Busch commented on it when asked what he thought about NASCAR fining Denny Hamlin for intentionally fencing Ross Chastain at Phoenix earlier in the year.
Busch said, “I just try to focus on me and race how you’re supposed to race and hope that you don’t have issues that come up with other drivers, but occasionally you do and you handle them as you feel like you need to when that time comes.”
When asked what he’d like to see happen, he answered, “Drivers to be more ethical and take responsibility for their actions and just race and race hard, and if you make a mistake like, ‘Okay, fine I get it,’ but when you intentionally drive over somebody because they made a move on you or something that you didn’t like then you’re gonna get punched in the face afterwards.”
Busch elaborated, “We have completely lost any sense of respect in the garage area between drivers. That’s where the problem lies. Nobody gives two shits about anybody else. And it’s just a problem where everybody takes advantage of everybody as much as they can. We’re all selfish granted, but there was an etiquette that once did live here. Mark [Martin] started it. Tony [Stewart] really lived by it. I think Jeff [Gordon] lived by it. Bobby Labonte. Rusty [Wallace] for the most. Dale Jarrett for sure. It did exist. That’s gone.”
Busch would later reiterate that in some cases the way to solve the problem is with a knuckle sandwich, “When it comes to the time in which it starts affecting other peoples’ races and such then again I think it leaves the door open for you to go punch somebody in the face.”
Kyle Busch via Bob Pockrass Twitter
RELATED: WATCH: Daniel Suárez Gives Alex Bowman The Chrome Horn On Pit Road Following The Race At COTA
While Busch and Preece seem to favor a good ole man to man brawl to solve these problems with other drivers, Ross Chastain had a very different perspective following the conclusion of the race at COTA.
He told reporters, “I didn’t get mad when I got spun. I just tried to get my car to start. It was in like low oil protection mode, and once I got the ECU cycled I got going and I never thought about it again. I don’t understand how we can be so upset about crazy restarts that we’re doing.”
Chastain added, “These cars are so tough. We can run into each other. There’s just lines of cars all pushing each other on the brakes. Nobody’s going in there saying, ‘I’m going to hit somebody.’ But it’s just the leader has to check up and then it just magnifies itself. So I tried being up top and going on the outside and got spun. I’ve been on the bottom and got slammed into. It’s crazy. I mean it’s big hits. I had my mouthpiece in so I’m curious what the G-forces are.”
He also did his best Russell Crowe impression from Gladiator, “‘Are you not entertained?’ Come on this is what we love. I don’t love it, doing it, but this is as a sport, we’re not boring.”
Ross Chastain via Motorsports on NBC YouTube
Busch was not impressed with Chastain’s commentary making a side remark while discussing how he raced Reddick clean at the end of the race. Busch, pointing to Chastain, said, “Somebody else that doesn’t know anything about clean over here.”
What do you make of Preece’s comments? What about Chastain’s point of view?