Who Is Ryan Preece’s Wife, Heather DesRochers?
The RFK Racing wheelman isn’t the only one in the Preece family with a penchant for the fast lane.
By most accounts, Ryan Preece’s name doesn’t exactly scream “blockbuster” like some of his peers in the NASCAR Cup Series. After all, compared to other drivers like Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney or Christopher Bell, since Preece’s inaugural Cup Series campaign in 2019 with JTG Daugherty Racing, he’s notched only one pole and never cracked a top-20 ranking to cap off a season. No wins, and certainly no championships.
But what he does have makes everything else look trivial. Call it heart; call it grit; call it whatever you want, but at the end of the day, when every competitor on the track knows you as the Man of Steel – sorry Henry Cavill – you have something far more valuable than any hardware, clock, broad sword or even the Bill France Cup itself. Respect. Even if it may have been earned in an unconventional way: first flipping his then Stewart-Haas Ford Mustang in a terrifying barrel roll during the 2023 Daytona Night Race only to ratchet up the horror two years later with a similar nightmare during the 2025 Daytona 500. Cars aren’t supposed to fly, yet this was the second time he’d taken flight in one, on the same track no less.
We talk about Preece’s determination and tremendous intestinal fortitude to get back up on the horse, which is remarkable, but as much as people have applauded his dauntless journey on the track, it’s the courage of Preece’s wife, Heather DesRochers, that needs to be illuminated. Every time Preece takes the track, every little bump, every little hiccup – it all coalesces into the agonizing reminder that at any moment on the track, her husband and the other speedsters jockeying for glory are perpetually a hundredth of second away from the ever present danger, lurking around every turn. Yet, she remains even-keeled and equally resilient in the face of such harrowing adversity. So, here’s a look at the courageous woman behind NASCAR’s “real” Superman.
How did Ryan Preece and Heather DesRochers meet?
Coming from both a racing family and being a Connecticut native like Ryan, it was kismet that Heather DesRochers met her racing beau at Stafford Motor Speedway in 2009 when her father was purchasing a race car from the chassis builder Ryan was working with at the time.
“I’d help dial the car in, and then we’d put her seat in or somebody’s seat in to help them realize what a car should feel like,” opined Preece on Rubbin’ is Racing. “The rest is history.”
Linked through their shared passion for motorsports, Heather and Ryan even tangoed a few times against one another on the same track during the 2011 SK Modified Series. Equally matched, Heather, who also participated in NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity, won the Rookie of the Year award that season while Ryan took home the whole enchilada with his championship victory. Though their competitive nature raised the bar for the other’s performance on the track, off the track, it fanned the flames of their future romance.
When did Ryan Preece and Heather DesRochers get married?
Though motorsports drove them into each other’s lives, for Heather, it wasn’t exactly “love at first sight." After that serendipitous meeting in 2009, it took two years before they paired up and began dating in 2011, and then tied the knot after six years of courtship during a private wedding ceremony in 2017.
Like any good love story, this was only an early chapter, and in 2023, the happy couple penned their next entry with the birth of their baby girl, Rebecca Marie. In February of this year, Heather spoke about love and nurturing role that Ryan has embraced since becoming a father.
“Ryan is the guy who spends every free minute that he has with Rebecca, our daughter,” DesRochers said to FOX’s Jamie Little. “He makes sure that even though he’s so busy, he still does everything in his power to make me feel supported.”
Preece admitted that he, like everyone, had heard through the grapevine that parenthood changes you. Still, nothing prepares you for what’s truly the ride of your life, especially when that ride is afforded by rocketing around race tracks at speeds of sometimes more than 200 mph.
“I’ve heard it all my life how much kids are going to change you, your perspective… and it’s very easy to get lost in racing,” reflects Preece in the same interview. “It’s not that you’re kinda numb to it, but every time you show up to a weekend, you understand there’s the potential for a wreck.”
Reflecting on his daughter’s growing affinity for racing, the thought of her following in his and Heather’s footsteps is something that’s crossed his mind, but he doesn’t let the concern drag him down.
“It doesn't scare me,” notes Preece, per the New Haven Register. “If that's the path she wants to take, I'm going to support it. But I'm certainly not going to push it on her because I know the struggles and the commitment that it takes to go down this path.”
How does Heather DesRochers cope with Ryan Preece’s accidents?
Having spent a lifetime on and around the track even before she met Ryan, Heather DesRochers’ familiarity with the intrinsic dangers of motorsports helped soften the immediate blows of witnessing Preece’s terrifying crashes. That said, nothing can truly prepare you for those spine-chilling moments when, in an instant, everything devolves into chaos.
“I just couldn’t help but think that it wouldn’t happen to same person twice,” DesRochers recounts to FOX Sports about his most recent crash at Daytona. “Everything flashed through my head of what life wouldn’t look like if he were to be gone. It was a lot.”
In those terrifying milliseconds where the tiniest of tightropes bifurcates life or death, Preece noted that only one thing went through his mind.
“When the car took off like that, it got real quiet, and all I thought about was my daughter,” notes the resilient racer.
Part of the couple’s way to cope with the trauma is not to hide it away in some deep, dark recess of their subconscious. Instead, as if channeling Ryan’s signature will to compete, Heather and Ryan keep a “token” on hand at their home that allows them stare down the memory each and every day.
“We keep this picture in our laundry room,” states DesRochers. “I like to keep it as a reminder of just how blessed we are that he was okay and how lucky we are.”
“I think that you have to just look at every race as a new race,” she added. “I try to just focus on hoping that he has a successful day and is safe.”
