NASCAR Cup Series: Ryan Preece doubles down on Ty Gibbs beef: ‘I was not going to cut him a break’

Ryan Preece has doubled down on his beef with Ty Gibbs after their high-profile NASCAR Cup Series flashpoint at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday.

Preece vs Gibbs was one of the biggest storylines coming out of the Wurth 400 after a race which saw the 35-year-old RFK Racing star raging for most of the day.

It was easy to see trouble ahead when he fumed: "Alright when I get to that 54 I'm done with him. F***ing idiot. That car is so f***ing fast, p***es me off. I’m gonna vent for 15 seconds. I can't stand when idiots like him have fast race cars where they can do stupid s*** and get away with it. End of rant."

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Ty got wrecked, NASCAR hammered Preece

That was just the warmup act, and the main event arrived on Lap 101 when Gibbs slid into the barrier and out of the race. Preece, of course, was in very close proximity at the time.

It's still not entirely clear whether Ryan actually made contact, with replays simply showing that the pair were line astern when Gibbs veered into the outside wall.

Whatever the cause, Preece has now paid the financial and the sporting price for what happened, with NASCAR handing down a $50,000 fine and docking him 25 points for Behavioral infractions in its official penalty report late Tuesday.

If you expected Ryan to be remorseful or apologetic though for what went down in the Lone Star State, you would be very wrong. Instead, he is very much doubling down.

No remorse from Ryan Preece

Speaking to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, he said: “There’s moments that there are people that you can race with respect around and cut breaks to. Like I can think of multiple times yesterday that instead of putting another driver in a pretty tough spot, you make the decision not to do that.

“I just grew up racing against people that I learned that lesson a long long time ago when I was a lot younger. Sometimes I question if those same lessons are learned by the time you get to Cup.

“For me, it was more along the lines of he almost or pretty much was very close clear getting into 3, and I could lift, but I didn’t. Now I was right there and I felt like he came down and I was not going to cut him a break because in the past him and I have had problems."

Racing's 'unwritten code'

Preece stressed that it was his relationship with Gibbs which caused him to take the action he did in Texas.

“I’ve got a little bit of a short fuse with him and I with how we’re racing and that was just one of those situations that could I cut him a break? Probably could’ve, but I didn’t. And ultimately I didn’t feel like I hit him, I felt like I stayed right on him and he got loose and from there on he, unfortunately, he wrecked. I think that’s just the way it is.

"Basically, the decisions you make on the racetrack, people are going to make their decisions back and that’s the way racing is. It’s been around for as long as time, like an unwritten code or an unspoken thing."