Ryan Preece felt like he was having a private conversation with his crew during Cup Series practice on Friday at Chicagoland Speedway but the television crew aired out his frustrations about a NASCAR mandated safety change.

“I’m going to argue with NASCAR about this adjustment that they want and I don’t. This headrest is a pain in the [expletive]. It’s knocking my [expletive] head everywhere. Sorry, I’m not trying to swear. I’m just absolutely aggravated that I’m being told to change something that I don’t want to change.”

The issue is that NASCAR has targeted headrests for gaps and heights to prevent pivots during crashes but this latest change just didn’t work for Preece.

He minimally addressed those comments during his media availability on Saturday but also expressed frustrations that they were picked up and disseminated by the media.

“There is conflicting data to how I feel comfortable in a race car,” Preece said. “I feel like, as a race car driver, I’ve gone through some pretty horrific accidents, but the day after (the crash) at Daytona where you saw my eyes the next week, I was working out the next day.

“Everybody’s different and I had to make adjustments in the off-season that I didn’t want to. I had to make adjustments again over the past three weeks. So what you heard was some frustration that I thought was between my team and I, and apparently it wasn’t.

“So, I don't know if we need to bring back digital radios so we can communicate with each other during practice, but I don’t know. That’s as far as I’ll really get into it with you guys.”

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But Preece did bring it up again, when asked about the bumps at Chicagoland, and he offered more about how that contributed to his frustrations over the head rest.

“The bumps are really crazy and I think that's where a lot of the frustration came from yesterday is I have a different style of sitting in my seat so every time I would hit those bumps it's ricocheting and it's frustrating,” Preece said.

This is the second time Preece has said something over the radio that become the subject of public discourse. At Texas Motor Speedway, Preece suggested that Ty Gibbs had something coming his way several laps before contact between them.

This resulted in a fine and points deduction.

“Wait a second,” Preece interjected. “That was very out of context, in my opinion. I didn’t key up when I was on the race track. I was in my garage stall (when) I’m trying to make my car better.”

So, is Preece really suggesting making radios private to some degree?

"I don't know," Preece said. "I'm not in charge of that. I thought I was just speaking to my team, my crew chief, about the adjustments we made."

Any changes to his personal policy?

"Well yeah, I would say don't hit the button," Preece said. "But I wasn't talking about another driver. I was talking about a comfort issue."

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