“I Don’t Wanna Be Trapped in There”- SHR Star Fires Shots at Tony Stewart & Co. After “Unnecessary” Dover Debacle

Stewart-Haas Racing driver, Ryan Preece’s effort at Dover Motor Speedway has come to an unfortunate end. The No. 41 Ford Mustang is suspected to have faced a mechanical malfunction that resulted in smoke inside the car’s cockpit. Initially, the door foam was suspected to be the cause of the smoke. But there seems to be a major malfunction with the No. 41 car that was about to spark a fire and put the driver at risk.

A decent result at the Monster Mile could have helped Preece gain some momentum after a decent showing in the past three events. But, instead, he had to abandon his race car to prevent a major accident and make an early exit from the race. “I felt like I was on fire. 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 oil line or something would melt and the whole car engulfs in fire and I don’t want to be trapped in there when that happens,” said Preece.

It has to be noted, that the 41 car has already been under scrutiny by officials, which resulted in 35 docked points at Atlanta. Therefore, today’s no-show put the driver further down in the pecking order in the leaderboard standings. Frustrated with the situation, Ryan Preece added, “Whatever happened is completely unnecessary. We can’t afford days like this. I’m not going to be the one to say what happened, but it wasn’t necessary; it could have been prevented.”

While the No. 41 team had a catastrophic end, the rest of the SHR lineup had decent finishes. Noah Gragson in particular stood out with his efforts after bagging another top-ten result.

Gragson is leading the charge for the SHR team

After the departure of Kevin Harvick, Chase Briscoe was the one touted to take the reins and lead the team from the front in 2024. While he has managed to churn out consistent results, it is Gragson who looks likely to bring the glory back to the SHR camp. Last weekend’s chaotic end of the race saw the Las Vegas native bag himself a #3 finish, which was his best result in the Cup Series.

Coming into Dover, he came prepared for yet another weekend and got himself a good starting position in the third row. Starting fifth and finishing the race sixth, it was a pretty good result. Considering he was up against the likes of Alex Bowman, Ty Gibbs, and Tyler Reddick, He did get lucky with the caution with 78 laps remaining in the race, but he held his ground for the remainder of the event to grab another top 10 result to his name.

“Great day here at Dover, started 5th finished 6th. Really proud of everybody’s hardwork on this Millertech team. Caught some lucky cautions there for lucky breaks but able to come home in the top 10 with the 6th place finish. We’ll take it and be ready for the next weekend in Kansas.” Gragson said after the race.

The finish saw the 25-year-old jump six positions in the standings and is currently placed in the 21st spot. This might as well turn out to be a huge turning point in Gragson’s season, as the upcoming Cup races are at his favored venues. Last season running in Xfinity, he emerged victorious at both Kansas and Darlington. So keep an eye out for him, as he could be on the verge of breaking the winless duck for SHR.