Ryan Preece Rolls To Whelen Southern Mod Tour Victory At South Boston Speedway

(Press Release from NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications)

Ryan Preece celebrates victory in Saturday’s Whelen Southern Modified Tour event at South Boston (Va.) Speedway (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

Ryan Preece attained what often seemed to be an inevitable result when he took the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour checkered flag Saturday at South Boston Speedway, but it wasn’t without some late-race drama.

Preece led the South Boston 150 from start-to-finish en route to his second career southern tour victory, the majority of the time comfortably in the perch. Two late-race cautions provided an extra challenge for the Berlin, Connecticut, native, but he was able to emerge ahead in both green-white-checkered flag restart attempts for the win.

JR Bertuccio crossed the line second and was joined on the podium by Burt Myers while Eric Goodale and Danny Bohn finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Kyle Ebersole, David Calabrese, Trey Hutchens, Gary Putnam and Jason Myers brought home the top 10.

Defending South Boston 150 winner and reigning tour champion Andy Seuss was involved in the first accident caution of the race and relegated to a 16th place finish, 57 laps down.

Preece, the 2013 champion of the northeast-based NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour where he regularly competes, has branched out to the southern sister tour on a limited basis in recent seasons. While he’s consistently had fast cars – he earned his eighth Coors Light Pole Award in 12 career appearances earlier in the day at South Boston – Preece has had defeat snatched from the jaws of victory on multiple occasions due to mechanical failures and accidents.

There were no gremlins for Preece on this sunny Saturday afternoon in the rolling hills of southern Virginia, however. It was a perfect day in the No. 98 Curb Records/Menards Chevrolet: fastest in practice and qualifying, and every lap led in the race. His previous Whelen Southern Modified Tour triumph in 2013 at Bowman Gray Stadium was also earned in wire-to-wire fashion.

The Whelen Southern Modified Tour will return to the Commonwealth of Virginia next Saturday, April 11 for the Pepsi 150 at Langley Speedway in Hampton.