Denny Hamlin calls to get rid of infield grass at Daytona

Denny Hamlin believes that Daytona International Speedway should make some changes to the track layout to further prevent an accident occurring like the one involving Ryan Preece during Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400.

With just five laps remaining in the race, Preece spun out and barrel-rolled through the infield on the backstretch. Preece was placed on a stretcher before he was loaded into the ambulance and taken to the care center. He was later transported to the Halifax Health Medical Center before being discharged Sunday morning.

Speaking on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast Sunday, Hamlin called for a removal of grass at Daytona to help prevent the 3,500-pound cars from twirling in the air such as Preece’s No. 41 Ford did.

“I know the drivers have been really on this for a long time, but getting rid of the grass. I guess I’m in that camp for sure,” Hamlin said. “Certainly, the car doesn’t bite as much as it would if it was on – it’s not going to change it from getting air. The car was going airborne way before the grass. It’s just the grass made it bite and that’s when it caused it to twirl in the air.” 

Preece posted a message to his fans Saturday night after the scary wreck.

“If you want to be a race car driver, you better be tough. Dammit. Fast @racechoice @FordPerformance Mustang. I’m coming back,” Preece said.

Preece finished P31, wrapping up his regular season with one top-five finish and 26th in the NASCAR Cup Series standings. His top-five finish came at the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway when he raced his way to a fifth-place finish. It was the second-best result of his career after a fourth-place finish at the 2021 Coke Zero Sugar 400.

Denny Hamlin calls Ryan Preece Daytona crash the ‘most violent barrel roll’ he’s seen

Hamlin described the wreck as the “most violent barrel roll” he’s ever seen in NASCAR.

“So they start to play it and so I’m driving, I’m looking through the window net… I’m looking and seeing him turn and start to flip and I’m like ‘Oh wow he got some good air. Oh no!’ I mean as soon as his car hit the grass, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one have that many rotations in the air,” Hamlin said. “I mean, not since a U.S. gymnast have I seen that many barrel rolls before making contact. Holy cow.

“I mean, we got news that Ryan’s out of the hospital on his way to Charlotte now so seems like he’s fine. Got a tweet from him last night, so I think he’s going to be okay so we can comment on it. But holy sh**. That thing was violent. That was the most violent barrel roll I’ve ever seen. Usually, you’ve seen in the old days when the cars would barrel roll, it’d be a little bit slower. The car would dissipate more. His car really kind of stayed together, except for the roof hatch and the window net, yikes.”