NASCAR star Ryan Preece admits he missed penalty phone call

NASCAR Cup Series star Ryan Preece has revealed that he originally missed the phone call telling him that he was being penalized this week.

Preece was handed a 25-point penalty and $50,000 fine on Tuesday for what NASCAR saw as an intentional retaliation wreck of Ty Gibbs at Texas last Sunday, which he and his RFK Racing team have signalled that they intend to appeal.

The driver of the No. 60 car was speaking to media at Watkins Glen this weekend, and revealed that he'd been out mowing his lawn without much phone service when the call came through.

The penalty was laid out for him when he discovered the missed call and returned it. He insisted this weekend that he's 'excited' about his appeal, and seemed confident of getting the punishment overturned.

Preece admits surprise at NASCAR penalty

“Honestly," he said, "I’m a bit surprised [to receive the penalty]. I’m thankful that NASCAR has an appeals process, so I feel like I can be heard and let that process play out.”

He added: “I was on my mower, mowing my lawn at about 4:30 p.m. in an area that does not have great signal. I just saw that I had a missed call, so when I made the call back, I found out that I had a penalty. At that point, I’m thankful for RFK, for Chip [Bowers] and everyone there for their support.

"I’m thankful for having Chris and Brad [Keselowski] as teammates and for them being the great teammates that they are. I’m excited to go through the appeals process. At least I can feel like I can go through it and share my side.”

Will Ryan Preece change radio style after penalty?

Asked if he would reconsider his radio communications after the punishment – it was his comment some laps before the contact that 'when I get to that 54 I'm done with him' that appears to have been the main thing that tipped the wreck into punishment territory.

"At the beginning of the season," he said, "we were encouraged to be ourselves. I’m not going to change being myself, but what I can say is that I’m excited for the appeals process, and I look forward to going through that.”

He added: “I’m feeling pretty good about the appeals process and not having to deal with that. But, that is a substantial amount of money.”