On Nov. 19, 2024 RFK Racing announced that Ryan Preece would run full-time in a third NASCAR Cup Series ride in the team’s stable for 2025.
It marked an optimistic new beginning for Preece, who was part of the Stewart-Haas Racing Cup Series stable in 2024 that saw the team shut down at the end of the season.
Thus far Preece, of Berlin, seems to be making the most of the optimism surrounding his ride.
After running with the leaders for much of the first 60-lap Daytona 500 qualifying Duel event, Preece finished 13th In the event Thursday at Daytona International Speedway.
“We have a really, really fast Ford Mustang for Sunday and it was frustrating when we lost that track position,” Preece said. “This car drives different from what I had and I just got put in a bad spot or what, I’ve got to go watch, but Sunday is gonna be fun having all the other Fords out there to be able to work together because in that race you just felt like every Chevy was trying to move you out of the way.”
Preece will start 27th of 41 cars in Sunday’s Daytona 500.
Preece, a former regular at Stafford Speedway, Thompson Speedway and Riverhead Raceway and a former NASCAR Modified Tour champion, is in his sixth full-time season in the NASCAR Cup Series. He ran full-time for JTG Daugherty Racing from 2019 – 2021 and spent the 2023 and 2024 seasons at Stewart-Haas Racing.
Preece was third fastest in time trial qualifying Wednesday at Daytona.
He started second in his qualifying duel race but went to the back of the field early with a hood pin issue. After getting the issue resolved, Preece marched back from 20th to the front of the field.
On lap 32 Preece was up to second behind Bubba Wallace. By lap 37 he was leading the field. But on lap 40 Preece made contact with Wallace. Preece ended up in the middle of the two lanes and quickly fell back to 14th place.
Preece was back to 11th with 12 laps remaining.
With no RFK teammates in the event and no other Fords in the top-15 Preece seemed stuck around 10th for most of the final 10 laps with nobody to work with on track. A last lap scrum saw Preece get up as far as eighth and then fall to 13th coming to the checkered flag.
“This car is fast,” Preece said. “It’s bad fast. I’m frustrated because when those guys went to the top and the middle broke free, I from everything I’ve watched the top never prevails and it did tonight, so you just don’t know. I think like I did early on, you’ve got to take every run you can and go. I’m just really disappointed with that because we have a really fast Ford Mustang.”
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NASCAR is a joke…
Made A Mistake And Paid Dearly For It. Hope He Learns Not To Do That Again. He Will Be Alright!! Go “Preece Lighting”
Preece had a brake problem just as the race was starting, and had to deal with it on subsequent pit stops. There’s video of a fire under the hood, while in the pits.
Meanwhile, in the other 150 Duel, some struggling independent named Anthony Alfredo also finished the same impressive 13th, but he is one of only two cars out of the 45 entered who won’t qualify to race in the 500. Because??? Something about not kissing the ring, paying enough money up front to be in the club, no doubt. Nothing about skill, speed, or competition . For crying out loud, Castroneves crashed out!!!! and still gets in the 500 because of a “Super-special-secret-just this-once-famous-guy-paid-guarantee-sponsorship-money-is-king-promotion.”
Yes, Luger, as far as honest sports go, NASCAR truly is a joke. Getserious