{"id":28772,"date":"2026-04-26T21:32:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T21:32:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=28772"},"modified":"2026-04-26T21:32:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T21:32:41","slug":"nascar-driver-who-was-left-bloodied-from-horrifying-daytona-crash-has-harsh-words-for-stephen-a-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=28772","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR driver who was left bloodied from horrifying Daytona crash has harsh words for Stephen A. Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"speakable\">Ryan Preece, who is single-handedly responsible for the removal of the backstretch grass at Daytona International Speedway, has a blunt message for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/person\/stephen-a-smith\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Stephen A. Smith<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">Shut up and steer!<\/p>\n<p>OK, I&#8217;m paraphrasing, but I assume Preece at least <i>thought <\/i>that.<\/p>\n<p>For those who missed it, Stephen A. sent the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/auto\/nascar\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NASCAR<\/a> world into a frenzy this week when he said NASCAR drivers aren&#8217;t athletes. It&#8217;s not a new debate, by the way, but Stephen A. brought it back to the surface, and it went &#8230; poorly.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-ct inline\">\n<div class=\"m\"> <\/div>\n<div class=\"info\">\n<div class=\"caption\"><span>ESPN commentator and host Stephen A. Smith appears on set in New Orleans, La., on Feb. 7, 2025.<\/span> <span>(Aaron M. Sprecher\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The conversation all took place on his SiriusXM podcast, and it turned to NASCAR (and golf) during a debate about where LeBron James ranks as one of the greatest athletes ever in terms of longevity.<\/p>\n<p>Weird that Stephen A. was talking about LeBron. He almost never mentions him!<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, a caller suggested Richard Petty deserves to be on that list, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/sports\/stephen-smith-shannon-sharpe-unload-espn-colleagues-after-comments-made-about-first-take\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;First Take&#8221;<\/a> host LOST it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Come on, man. That don\u2019t count. You driving a car!&#8221; Smith said. &#8220;I\u2019m being honest, it\u2019s a great sport. But come on, bro. Getting behind the wheel of a car is not the same. You can be behind the wheel of a car in your 60s and 70s for crying out loud. A golfer is not an athlete. A NASCAR driver is not an athlete.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Ryan Preece isn&#8217;t falling for it, Stephen A. Smith!<\/h3>\n<p><i>Whoaaaaaaaaaaa Nellie! <\/i>Tell us how you really feel, Stephen A. Smith! Goodness gracious. Such a random rant from someone who I can promise you hasn&#8217;t watched one second of a NASCAR race in &#8230; maybe ever? Seriously.<\/p>\n<p>What are the odds that Stephen A. has ever watched a single lap? Not great. I&#8217;d venture to say that he can&#8217;t name a single driver outside of Bubba Wallace. Maybe Tyler Reddick, but <i>only <\/i>because he drives for Michael Jordan.<\/p>\n<p>But outside of that? No shot. Just a ridiculous thing to say, which makes sense given it&#8217;s Stephen A. Smith.<\/p>\n<p>Now, back to Ryan Preece &#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-ct inline\">\n<div class=\"m\"> <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ryan-preece.jpg\" alt=\"NASCAR driver Ryan Preece airborne in flipped car during Daytona 500 race\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"info\">\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p><span>NASCAR Cup Series driver Ryan Preece gets airborne after a wreck during the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.<\/span> <span>(Mark J. Rebilas\/Imagn Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>For those who don&#8217;t recall, Preece went for an insane ride a few years back at Daytona. The wreck was so brutal, the speedway actually removed the grass from the backstretch to hopefully keep the car on the ground in the future.<\/p>\n<p>Take a look:<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, you just don&#8217;t see stock cars do that nowadays. Certainly not like we used to. It&#8217;s rare that they even flip anymore, much less do it a billion times. Wild.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, Preece was asked about Stephen A. Saturday afternoon at Talladega, and didn&#8217;t mince words:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d love for him to go tumbling 13 times, have black eyes, and show up next week doing what you gotta do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Amen, brother! Get him! Don&#8217;t let Stephen A. get away with that nonsense. Like I said, the guy is full of crap. Like Ryan said, he says things just to say them. Just to get a rise out of folks.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.onelink.me\/xLDS?pid=AppArticleLink&amp;af_dp=foxnewsaf%3A%2F%2F&amp;af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fapps-products\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-ct inline\">\n<div class=\"m\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Ryan-Preece4.jpg\" alt=\"Ryan Preece barrel rolling along the back stretch at Daytona International Speedway\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"info\">\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p><span>Ryan Preece barrel rolls along the back stretch during the NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla., on Aug. 26, 2023.<\/span> <span>(Don Howard\/AP)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Obviously, it worked. I&#8217;m writing about it on a Saturday in April during the NFL Draft. Well done, Stephen A.<\/p>\n<p>Can&#8217;t wait to see you on the track soon!<\/p>\n<p>  <!--&gt;--> <\/p>\n<div class=\"article-meta\">\n<div class=\"author-bio\">\n<p>Zach Dean is a writer for OutKick.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/outkick-sports\/nascar-driver-left-bloodied-horrifying-daytona-crash-harsh-words-stephen-smith\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ryan Preece, who is single-handedly responsible for the removal of the backstretch grass at Daytona International Speedway, has a blunt message for Stephen A. Smith: Shut up and steer! OK, I&#8217;m paraphrasing, but I assume Preece at least thought that. For those who missed it, Stephen A. sent the NASCAR world into a frenzy this &#8230; <a title=\"NASCAR driver who was left bloodied from horrifying Daytona crash has harsh words for Stephen A. Smith\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=28772\" aria-label=\"Read more about NASCAR driver who was left bloodied from horrifying Daytona crash has harsh words for Stephen A. Smith\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/NASCAR-driver-who-was-left-bloodied-from-horrifying-Daytona-crash.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28772"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28774,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28772\/revisions\/28774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}