NASCAR Cup Series star explains why he raced BACKWARDS for a lap

Ryan Preece may never drive a normal Daytona 500 again.

While the RFK Racing driver might be glad he managed to keep his car right side up at the NASCAR Cup Series season opener this year, now he just has to work on keeping it pointing in the right direction.

While significantly less dramatic than his 2025 flip (and, indeed, his 2023 flip in the summer race at the same track), Preece ended the 2026 edition of the race by throwing his Ford Mustang into reverse for most of a 2.5 mile lap of the Daytona International Speedway.

Having got caught in a big late wreck, the Cook Out Clash winner was motivated to get his car moving in order to finish the race and pick up a couple of extra potentially crucial points for a team expected to be around the fringes of Chase qualification...except his car was so damaged that it wouldn't drive forward.

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Preece: Every point matters!

Asked this weekend at Atlanta how he even came to the point of throwing the gearstick to R, he explained: “[Hitting] The turn one wall really helped a lot and is what made that happen. It completely killed the splitter and when it came to trying to go in the normal direction, the car wouldn’t move, so going in reverse was the only way it would go.

"That’s how it came about. You guys hear it on the broadcast or on radio or in these interviews that every point matters. I hope that trying to get into the playoffs isn’t gonna be that close, but I’m not gonna say, ‘Man, what happens if I found a way to get it to the line'.”

Preece claimed that driving backward around the track wasn't actually too different to reversing his Ford truck in the RFK parking lot, saying: “There’s a lot of similarities with that. With a lot of new technology, we have rearview cameras in our vehicles, and it makes it a lot easier to back up.

"The old school way, which was throwing your arm over the passenger side seat and looking over your shoulder, there’s a lot more going on now that you can see what’s happening.”

One normal Ryan Preece race at Daytona. All he asks. Will never happen.