Freddie Kraft clowns Ryan Preece after choose cone drama at NASCAR All-Star Open Race

Ryan Preece was assessed a choose cone violation for running over the choose V during Sunday’s All-Star Open at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Preece was “fu*king pi--ed” after the race, complaining that he couldn’t see it.

Bubba Wallace‘s spotter, Freddie Kraft, said that if he was Preece, he’d be pi--ed as well. Not at NASCAR, Kraft said on Monday’s “Door Bumper Clear” podcast, but at himself.

“I would be really pi--ed, too, if I was him,” Kraft said. ” … Here’s where I’m at with that — we couldn’t see it, but I knew he hit it. Like, when he did it, I go, ‘Oh, sh*t, I think he just hit the box.’ And we waited half a lap and I’m on my way to talk to the official because they say it on TV you can see it a little better… but I knew because you just know where the damn thing is. Like, no matter what. We’re coming to the first choose and I go, ‘Oh, sh*t, where the hell is the cone? Like, where’s the arrow?’

“But you still know to get way left or way right because you know where the damn thing is. You know it’s a couple feet — it looked to me like Ryan made it very obvious and went far left at the start/finish line. But then he turned right to probably get his tires ready and that’s when he drove straight over the cone. And I went, ‘Oh, it looked like he hit the fu*king cone,’ and it was going to benefit me a lot because we were third and got to move up to the front row.”

Ryan Preece delivers ‘choose cone’ to frontstretch after brutal NASCAR All-Star Open penalty

The earlier Whelen Modified race laid down a ton of rubber on the track, resulting in limited visibility of the choose cone for Preece. The RFK Racing driver lost his P2 track position and a potential spot in the All-Star Race due to the choose cone violation. NASCAR repainted the choose V ahead of the All-Star Race.

After jumping out of his car, he made a point to NASCAR. He went to the infield, grabbed an actual traffic cone and delivered it to the frontstretch of North Wilkesboro. He spoke to the media, where he expressed his frustration.

“I think it’s a cone that’s nonexistent. So, if you’re gonna, I don’t know… can’t even see it right now,” Ryan Preece said. “A rule is a rule, I understand that. But I mean, at the end of the day, I made a mistake. So, just frustrated with the outcome or the decision.”

Kraft isn’t buying Preece’s excuse. Preece should have known better, even if he couldn’t see the choose V on the racetrack, he said.

“You’re making excuses when you try to blame the fact you can’t see it because I don’t think that had anything to do with it,” Kraft said. “I’m sure you would have been able to avoid it if you could see it. But for me, it’s just a mistake that you can’t make. Bubba hit it at COTA because he couldn’t see it because of the glare. Should we have just been screaming about what time the sun sets in Austin, Texas, that day because we were the only one to hit it and weren’t smart enough to go far enough left?”