Ryan Preece’s run in Sunday’s Würth 400 at Dover Motor Speedway appears to be done before the end of Stage 1 due to reoccurring smoke showing up in his cockpit.
Preece, who previously reported smoke inside his No. 41 Ford earlier in the race, came down pit road under green after he relayed to his team that the door foam was catching fire. He told his team to “get a fire extinguisher before taking his car to the garage, per Lee Spencer of Catchfence.
“I felt like I was on fire, and I went the first 70 laps just trying to push through and then it got so bad that I couldn’t put my hands on the wheel. I was worried that an oil line or something would melt and then the whole car gets engulfed in fire, and I don’t want to be trapped in there having that happen, so I pulled off. Whatever happened it was completely unnecessary, and we can’t afford days like this,” Preece said, via Kelly Crandall of RACER.
It’s certainly not what Preece expected when he strapped into his racecar at Dover, entering Sunday’s race looking to continue his recent string of solid finishes. Preece finished P9 at Martinsville, P12 at Texas and P14 at Talladega, his three highest finishes of the season. He came into the race 23rd in the points standings but will likely see himself fall after a DNF.
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