Ryan Preece (Photo: Joe Gibbs Racing)
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By Polly Reid & Shawn Courchesne
THOMPSON – A weekend full with racing ended positively on all fronts for Ryan Preece.
After racing Saturday with his Joe Gibbs Racing NASCAR XFINITY Series team at Texas Motor Speedway, Preece raced back to Connecticut and then did a masterful job racing from the back to the front in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Icebreaker 150 at Thompson Speedway.
Preece finished fifth in Saturday’s My Bariatric Solutions XFINITY Series event at Texas Motor Speedway. It was his second XFINITY Series start of the season.
Preece started 27th in Sunday’s Icebreaker 150 at Thompson. He was up to 15th by lap eight and into the top-10 by lap 32.
“It worked out,” Preece said of the pit strategy Sunday for his TS Haulers team. “Right around lap 110 a caution came out, that was the answer I wanted. You’ll never see me pit with before 40 to go, I know what I got and typically know where I need to be In that amount of time.”
Preece’s fifth place at Texas Motor Speedway qualified him for the XFINITY Series Dash For Cash program in Saturday’s XFINITY Series event at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.
Also qualifying for the Dash For Cash at Bristol were Cole Custer, Daniel Hemric and Christopher Bell. The top finishing driver among those four will win a $100,000 bonus.
“It could help me finish building a race car,” Preece said. “That would be a lot. It’s going to be pretty cool. Bristol is a short track. Daniel [Hemric] and I, we’re – he’s from Late Models. I actually raced Daniel in Modifieds growing up quite a while ago, so we’re kind of from the same whole deal on the East Coast and then you got [Christopher] Bell who’s a midget driver from out West and then you’ve got Cole [Custer] who’s K&N and all that. We’re all from the short tracks and now we’re just going to be brought into the XFINITY Series and go race at Bristol. On top of it $100,000. That’s a big deal. This is what I keep telling Bell, ‘I’m a bottom feeder’. So I’m going to be the catfish and I’m sure he’s going to be right up against the lip up top.”
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Ryan Preece on the Dash For Cash at Bristol
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Sure wish he would have been able to practice the car and shake it out himself. But those darn pesky xfinity races get in the way.
I seriously believe had the race gone green instead of caution after caution… Ryan would have been right up front for the Checkers!! When he made that last pit stop I said there it is The Ex Lax move of the day!! You just know that left rear was the one he was saving!!
Watched the Xfinity race Saturday. Ryan did a superb job wheeling the JGR#18 to a fine 5rh place finish. Stayed out of trouble all day and even qualified for the dash for cash. Great job for a guy from New England. Then 24 hours later wheels his #6 NWMT Car to a with place finish not having turned a wheel all weekend and having to start last. The guy is a natural, and hopefully has successfully seasons in both the NWMT and Xfinity series, maybe the coach will throw him more races this season and a full-time ride in 2019 GOOS LUCK EYAN PREECE Bring home that bonus you deserve it.