The final rundown won’t show it, but it’s fair to say they knew Ryan Preece was there Sunday in the Daytona 500.
Preece, of Berlin, was making his first Cup Series points event start for Stewart-Haas Racing Sunday in Daytona.
Preece started 20th in the 40-car field but made his way quickly toward the front of the pack. He spent most of the event racing within or near the top-five. He led four laps (68-71).
On lap 182 Preece was running with the lead pack when a hit from behind from Michael McDowell sent him spinning and collected into a multi-car wreck. He had to settle for a 36th place finish.
“Everybody was on green flag cycles,” Preece said. “People trying to block the rows are trying to cycle in and I just want to focus on the fact that we had such a fast Haas Tooling Ford Mustang. This opportunity is exactly what I wanted, so it’s unfortunate because I felt like we were gonna put ourselves in position to give ourselves an opportunity to be in contention to win this race, but it just wasn’t meant to be. Hopefully, we keep unloading fast Ford Mustangs like we did this weekend and we’ll have some fun.”
Preece was making his fourth Daytona 500 start. His former teammate at JTG Daugherty Racing, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., won the race. Middletown native Joey Logano was second and Christopher Bell was third.
Ryan was very good all day. Wreck was the product of pack racing on a restrictor plate track. He will be solid all year
Savored every moment of his run up front and even his time in the mid teens knowing his car had the goods this day. Drafting with Keselowski at the front Ryan looked so confident and exactly where he was destined to be. Then dad gum it, it was over. Could Preece have done anything to avoid being in the position he was when the line was backing out and he became vulnerable? Who knows but it sure is a bummer.
The good new is now on the intermediate and shorter tracks unlike before he should have a better car to compete with.
This is the result of super speedway plate racing. When someone messes up, it will impact many others. It’s hard to stay out of anybody else’s trouble with this style of racing.
The bumpers need much more give to absorb the jolts that loosens the cars.
GOOD JOB YOUR NOW ONE OF THE STARS OF NASCAR
What goes around comes around full circle
RESPECT