“It reminded me of the snowball derby”: RFK Racing driver delivers his verdict after an ‘exciting’ option tire strategy at Phoenix

RFK Racing's Ryan Preece discussed the "exciting" race he experienced with the option tires from Goodyear during the Shriners Children's 500 at the Phoenix Raceway. The #60 was seen gaining an early advantage from the tire as Preece made his way through the field.

For the second time in NASCAR's history, teams had an 'option tire' available during the race. The race at the Phoenix Raceway turned into a strategy battle because of the two compounds of tires. The option tire, painted red, provided the cars with better grip and more speed, but it also wore out faster than the usual tire.

Ryan Preece, discussing the race, mentioned that it reminded him of his early days in racing because of the choice of tires.

"You know, for a lot of guys that have been racing at the national level for a while now, it's really different. But, you know, for me, it reminded me of when we went to the snowball derby or, you know, if you're racing out of short track with only allotted so many tires and you got to, you know, pick and choose, you know, take your lumps," the RFK Racing driver told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Preece, who moved to RFK Racing this year, started the race in 28th place and was able to finish 15th following the cautions and strategic advantage. He said the race became "exciting" because of the options they had.

"I saw Joey [Logano] took advantage of his reds and, you know, a few other people, it just created different strategies. And I think with all the cautions and how they played out, you know, my opinion, it was an exciting race," he concluded.

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RFK Racing star Ryan Preece feels 'something needs to be done' after his Daytona crash

NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 - Source: Getty

The 2025 season-opening Daytona 500 turned out to be rather scary for Ryan Preece and his #60 RFK Racing crew. During the closing stages of the race, there was an incident at the front of the field involving Christopher Bell's Toyota.

He slammed into the wall on the outside, and as he moved back in the field, he caught Preece's car that saw him lifting off the asphalt and being airborne for seconds before hitting the track back and crashing out. He was soon taken to the hospital and was declared safe.

Speaking after the crash, Preece stated that "something needs to be done" about these crashes, bringing into question the families of the drivers, if something were to go wrong.

"As a father, as a racer, we keep beating on a door hoping for a different result and we know where there’s a problem: at superspeedways," the RFK Racing driver said. "I don’t want to be the example. When it finally does get somebody, I don’t want it to be me. I got a 2-year-old daughter, just like a lot of us; we’ve got families. Something needs to be done because cars lifting off the ground like that."

NASCAR has worked extensively on driver safety and has introduced many features that protect drivers during crashes. Nevertheless, a crash that witnesses a car lifting off the ground could be quite dangerous.