Ryan Preece aired out his frustration with teammates helping Alex Bowman after a potential win at the Daytona 500 slipped away.
The end of the Daytona 500 was a thrilling bit of racing, with the lead changing multiple times and ultimately a four-wide photo finish. But it left many drivers, Ryan Preece included, exasperated.
The jockeying for position largely came down to who had what line and when. And who was with you mattered as much as anything else.
Alex Bowman was the man with the most at stake. A new winner and he’d have been eliminated from the playoffs. A repeat winner and he was in.
So naturally, his Hendrick Motorsports teammates were doing what they could at the front of the pack to make sure either they or another winner crossed in first. That left Ryan Preece in a really tough spot.
“I mean I felt like we were going to win that race,” Preece told Dalton Hopkins of Frontstretch. “You want to talk about having the best scenario play out for how we wanted it to. I was just leaving the 7 there. The 17 was doing a great job just letting them stay there. There’s nothing you can do.
“The problem is you know the 9 and the 5 were worried about their teammate that would have been bumped out. So shitty situation. Thought we were going to win that one, because we did everything right today. Just didn’t work out.”
Try as he might, Ryan Preece just couldn’t quite work his way all the way up. Every time he got close someone surged from another line with a push from behind.
Eventually, Preece fell into a bad line and got sucked up in the chop. He finished P14, and it’s not the first time this season he’s been in position to win only to see the chance slip away.
“I mean we have fast f cars, so it pisses me off that this is the second time that we’ve been on the front row with two to go and didn’t win,” he said. “We need more friends behind ya. I can’t control what teammates do to help their teammate. That was the right thing for them.”
Ryan Preece has had a strong season, but he missed out on the playoffs despite some good runs. In the end, he pointed to teammates working together as the reason things didn’t pan out for him at Daytona.
“I had two Hendrick cars behind me and they’re worried about keeping their teammate in more than pushing me to a win or staying in line, right?” Preece said. “So in that situation, I can hate it all I want but, you know, frustrated. Because I felt like I did everything right, put the car where it needed to be and managed the lanes, just put it to where we got the white flag. Then eventually would have won the race.
“But you can’t control what teammates do to help their teammate. I would have done the same thing.”
Category: General Sports
