NASCAR VP of Competition Elton Sawyer addresses possibility of removing grass at Daytona

The incident involving Ryan Preece during Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona has NASCAR VP of Competition Elton Sawyer addressing the possibility of removing grass at the track.

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.

On Tuesday, Sawyer addressed the possibility of removing the grass to prevent wrecks like the one involving Preece from happening in the future.

💥 "Our sport is inherently dangerous […] the good news is our drivers were able to get out of the vehicles and we can learn and move forward."#NASCAR's Elton Sawyer addressed @RyanPreece_'s harrowing crash @DAYTONA and the possibility of removing the backstretch grass. pic.twitter.com/vTpbsnb3uk

— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) August 29, 2023

“Yeah, absolutely,” Sawyer responded, asked if there’s been conversations regarding removing grass from Daytona, via SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “I think you look at all of that stuff. Again, we look at the facility. We’ll look at the safer barrier, and where we put the tire packs, and where there’s grass and there’s asphalt. How our vehicles get to those areas. All of those things, we look at.

“We’ve had good collaboration with the facilities. … Just to make sure we have the safest environment for our competitors and our fans. But yes, absolutely that will be something that will be discussed.”

Evidently, there could be some big changes coming to Daytona. The removal of grass would be huge, as it’s become synonymous with the track over the last couple decades.

Nevertheless, drivers like Denny Hamlin have been vocal about making a change to Daytona following the wreck. 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.” 

Thankfully, Preece was able to walk away from the incident unscathed, posting 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.

Time will tell if any changes are made, but it’s evident Elton Sawyer and NASCAR are at least considering making the move to remove the grass at Daytona.

On3’s Nick Geddes contributed to this article.