NASCAR VP of Competition Elton Sawyer speaks out about Ryan Preece's Daytona Crash

NASCAR Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer spoke about regarding the terrifying crash Ryan Preece suffered at Daytona last weekend.

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.

Earlier this week, Sawyer explained how he saw it happen, and what NASCAR is doing to ensure it doesn’t happen 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

“We loaded it up at the race-track. We brought it back here to the R&D Center. They started yesterday, taking a much deeper dive into exactly what went on. Simulating getting sideways at 100 miles per hour. You’re in the grass, then you get on some asphalt. Obviously some air under the car and it starts to flip multiple times there. So all those things, we will take a much deeper dive into starting yesterday, to see. I’m sure that they’ll be things that we will learn from that, as we always do in those incidents,” explained Sawyer earlier this week, via SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “Our sport is inherently dangerous. Whether it’s on pit road, whether it’s behind the wheel of the race-car. It’s inherently dangerous. But the good news is our drivers were able to get out of the vehicles, and we can learn and we can move forward.”

One of the potential solutions that’s been floated since Saturday has been the removal of grass at Daytona, to keep one continued asphalt surface instead of the switch that some believe triggered Preece’s car to flip. That’s crossed Sawyer’s mind, as well.

“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.

Regardless, NASCAR doesn’t want to see their drivers flipping through the air like Ryan Preece did on Saturday. If they can find a way to fix it, they’re going to do so.