Ryan Preece found out about his disqualification while driving his motorhome back from Talladega Superspeedway.
“I was about an hour and a half, two hours in when I got the call that we got disqualified and the next four hours were pretty miserable,” Preece said on Saturday morning during a media availability at Texas Motor Speedway. “When I look back through that race, and the things we did, executing as a team, the strategy and how we had to attack each stage, because each stage was different ... so the way we attacked it as a team and the way we persevered, our green flag pit stops, the guys did a good job, and I'm excited for Texas to back it up.”
Preece was denied his career-best second-place finish on Sunday due to a shim that was left in his rear spoiler bracing. NASCAR allows two but a third was left in to pass inspection.
“From my understanding, I don't know how many cars failed the first (time) ... more than 30, and I'm guessing it was for spoiler angle, and what that shim does, puts the spoiler up to where they want that degree,” Preece said. “It was just an oversight to meet their rule to get through tech but it is the rule.
“There's obviously a process (now) in place to not be in that situation but when you're in the heat of the battle and you don't want to fail tech twice, you're trying to get through. Ultimately, we had a fast race car and our guys have been grinding and griding -- hard work and perseverance.”
Read more: Reactions from Talladega race weekend
While disappointed, Preece said it was easy to move on from the standpoint that he is proud of the work being put in at RFK Racing and that this was just an oversight.
"I mean, it's not ideal, what happened but it's not like it was a performance thing,” Preece said. “I don’t think you’d want to add a shim to put spoiler angle in a car. It was to meet the rule that to pass tech and in the heat of the battle, you’re just trying to get through tech on tech day.
“So, you know, it is what it is, and the thing about our group is we’ll go out there, execute, get stage points and keep putting ourselves in positions to have great days like that. Yeah, just keep fighting.”
Is it more of a relief now that Preece didn’t win his first ever Cup Series race only to have it taken away in inspection.
“I still wanted to win,” Preece said. “I don't think that would change anything. I'll tell you what, I couldn’t be more proud of being a part of RFK and everything. The knowledge and the support, and everything that we’ve had, or I’ve had — it’s been a lot of fun.
“Even going into the mindset with Chris and Brad — it was funny, at the beginning of that race, you know, Brad, by Lap 3, was potentially leading that race, coming from where he was. So it’s just — it’s neat to study, and see all the different ways about how you attack a race. Glad to be part of it.”