Ryan Preece during his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice last week at New Hampshire Motor Speedway
STAFFORD – Earlier this week Ryan Preece got his first taste of competition at the highest level of NASCAR when he made his series debut in the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Sunday.
And the Berlin driver will get a second plateful of Sprint Cup action before the close of the 2015 season.
Preece will get a front row of seat NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series championship deciding event. He’ll be watching as part of the lineup.
Preece will compete in the Sprint Cup Series season finale on Nov. 22 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Fla.
“That’s definitely happening,” Preece said. “There’s been some talk about maybe some other stuff. I don’t know yet. But Homestead is a definite right now. It’s good to have opportunities like this.”
Like he did at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Preece – a regular on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and at Stafford Motor Speedway and Thompson Speedway – will compete for Premium Motorsports in an effort also backed by Tommy Baldwin Racing.
It will mark Preece’s second experience at the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway. He started the XFINITY Series season finale in 2014 at the track in a Tommy Baldwin Racing ride. He finished 28th in that event.
“You know I got to race a Cup car and I was hoping that it could turn into more and obviously it is,” Preece said.
In Sunday’s Sylvania 300 in Loudon, Preece started 37th and finished 32nd and kept the car straight all day long, finishing the event four laps down from race winner Matt Kenseth.
“It’s totally different,” Preece said. “When you go to a mile and half, a superspeedway, they’re different. Getting all those laps at New Hampshire helped to get used to the car, with no testing. It’s like, my first laps in a Cup car were at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. It’s just trying to pick it up as fast as I can and giving all the feedback I can to my crew chief and learning from there. That’s the goal. If you wreck you can’t learn and if you can’t learn you can’t get better.”
Confused, did he finish 28th or 32nd? Please proofread!
Sean,
Exactly as the story says, he finished 28th in the XFINITY Series event last year at Homestead. He was 32nd earlier this week at Loudon.
I find it amazing that no New England driver can get an opportunity in a Truck series on Infinity series ride; drivers Like Eddie MacDonald, Ryan Preece and more have the talent. No offense, not sure who Kaz Grala is and I don’t think he has really raced weekly at a New England track, so I don’t consider him as someone from the NE getting a shot. I think thistles of finding car owners kids/grand kids, cup drivers kids is the downfall of a once great series
That’s exciting that they are finally grabbing guys from the Modifieds instead of race drivers kids and grandkids guys who have earned this spot in top division don’t get the wrong idea if I was Richard Petty and my grandson wanted to race I would make that happen but there is so much talent in the Modifieds that these guys not like the old days don’t have nothing to look forward to it comes down to corporate and money not about talent and of course everything has to revolve around money but look at Jimmy Johnson if Jeff Gordon never gave him a chance or even Dale Earnhardt we would have never known those guys existed now we’re watching the offspring of race car drivers who are running in the top 20 to 30 let’s get the sport back to where it was 20 years ago