NASCAR star in shocking crash responds to Stephen | Sports News

Ryan Preece has been in two terrifying airborne crashes at Daytona International Speedway.

His first, in 2023, barrel-rolled so violently that NASCAR paved over the backstretch grass to forestall it from occurring again. His second, during this yr’s Daytona 500, despatched his car touring on its rear wheels earlier than flipping onto its roof and slamming into the surface wall. He walked away from each.

So when Stephen A. Smith urged this week that NASCAR drivers should not actual athletes, Preece had a very particular problem prepared. It comes after Kurt Busch has issued the right rebuttal to Smith.

“I’d love for him to go tumbling 13 times, have black eyes, and show up next week doing what you gotta do,” Preece stated Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway. “Your definition of an athlete certainly varies from person to person.”

The ESPN character ignited the NASCAR world earlier this week during his SiriusXM podcast, the place the subject of LeBron James’s athletic longevity arose and a caller urged NASCAR legend Richard Petty deserved to be half of that dialog.

Smith was having none of it. “Come on, man. That don’t count. You driving a car!” he stated. “I’m being honest, it’s a great sport. But come on, bro. Getting behind the wheel of a car is not the same. You can be behind the wheel of a car in your 60s and 70s for crying out loud. A golfer is not an athlete. A NASCAR driver is not an athlete.”

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The feedback landed like a grenade in the storage, with drivers and group personnel responding swiftly. Front Row Motorsports, one of NASCAR’s full-time Cup groups, despatched a message instantly to Smith’s Instagram account mocking his broadcast fashion in the method.

“Stephen A., what’s going on, my man? We heard that ABSOLUTELY PREPOSTEROUS take of yours claiming NASCAR drivers aren’t athletes, and quite frankly, we were stunned. Stunned!” the group wrote, earlier than inviting Smith to expertise a ride-along at 180 miles per hour.

Kurt Busch additionally weighed in on social media with a direct personal invitation. “Let’s go cupcake,” Busch wrote. “I will personally drive you around a NASCAR track for 30 minutes or when you pass out on lap 30.”

For Preece, the response was much less about debate and more about lived expertise. The 2023 Daytona crash was so extreme he was hospitalized in a single day for statement, and the monitor itself was bodily altered in response to what his car had achieved to it.

This yr’s Daytona 500 introduced more of the identical. After his car went airborne following contact from Christopher Bell, he walked away again, however with a message for NASCAR in regards to the ongoing security considerations at superspeedways.

“When the car took off like that, it got real quiet. All I thought about was my daughter, so I’m lucky to walk away,” Preece stated after February’s crash. “We keep beating on a door hoping for a different result, and I think we know where there’s a problem at superspeedways. I don’t want to be the example of when it finally does get somebody. I’ve got a 2-year-old daughter, and just like a lot of us, we have families. So something needs to be done because cars lifting off the ground like that.”