“I’m pretty strong on this”: Ryan Preece comes clean on his middle finger policy in NASCAR

Ryan Preece appeared on Jeff Gluck’s famous 12 Questions series for the Athletic. One of the questions asked was if he had a middle-finger policy to anything in racing. Preece replied that it was the excuse that drivers use of “learning” at the national level across all three NASCAR Series. He believes that if one is racing at the weekend, they should have already learnt how to drive and not be an “a**”.

Preece has been driving the #60 for Roush-Fenway-Keselowski Racing since the start of the 2025 season. His season includes a third-place finish at Las Vegas and a disqualified second-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway (the disqualification was a result of an illegal rear spoiler with three shims instead of two).

Ryan Preece replied to the tantalising question by Jeff Gluck:

“Absolutely, if you race like an a—. I’m pretty strong on this: If you are going to choose to race on Friday, Saturday or Sunday (in NASCAR) at a national level like you would at a go-kart track 10 minutes from your house, that’s when you deserve the middle finger.

"At the end of the day, we all can overstep that line. We’re all capable of driving through each other. It’s talent or ability that separates us from everybody else racing across the country — or it’s supposed to be. So I have a very, very short fuse when it comes to something we label as “learning” at this level. We’re professionals and are supposed to have learned those lessons a long time ago.”

The 34-year-old Connecticut native is the 2013 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion. Preece has struggled to achieve consistency in the Cup Series since his debut in 2015. After Stewart-Haas Racing’s closure in 2024, Preece moved to RFK Racing, where he is facing pressure to deliver for a resurgent Ford team. His 2025 season includes three top tens (Martinsville, Homestead-Miami and Las Vegas).

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Ryan Preece hopeful of NASCAR solving Next Gen safety woes

Ryan Preece, driver of the #60 RFK Racing Ford, has urged NASCAR to address the Next Gen car’s safety vulnerabilities after surviving two airborne crashes at Daytona in consecutive years (2023 and 2024). He said (via Motorsport.com):

"I’m sure with time, we’re going to find a solution that everybody is happy with. I don’t necessarily know what that solution is. I just hope that it’s sooner than later. As a person, as a racer, as someone that respects the other drivers I’m racing against as well as the car owners, I don’t want to see anybody get hurt or anything of that nature."

While NASCAR implemented fixes like removing grass from the backstretch after his 2023 incident, Preece’s 2024 Daytona 500 crash with Christopher Bell proved that the issue persists. Preece emphasized the need for aerodynamics-focused solutions.