Home Cooked: Ryan Preece Outruns Greg Biffle To Win New England 900 At Stafford Speedway 

STAFFORD – When it comes to the New England 900, the center of attention – the center of the galaxy – is always Cleetus McFarland. 

On Friday at Stafford though it was a pair of drivers famous for their NASCAR exploits putting on a show. 

In front of a sellout crowd of more than 10,000, current NASCAR Cup Series star and former Stafford Speedway regular Ryan Preece used a last lap pass of former NASCAR Cup Series star Greg Biffle to win the New England 900 the historic half-mile. 

“I’ll tell you what, this has to be the most fun I’ve had in a race car in a damn long time so thanks for having me out,” Preece said. “Thanks to all these awesome fans from New England. Y’all are the best. We just won the New England 900.” 

Preece was making his first start in one of the Cleetus McFarland organized Crown Vic events. It was the second consecutive year that McFarland has brought the event to Stafford Speedway. 

Preece went from a deep starting position and rocketed to the front of the field, taking the lead for the first time son lap 16. Biffle, who also started deep in the 21-car field, was up challenging Preece by a lap 72 restart. 

Preece was able to hold off Preece on the lap 72 restart. On a lap 78 restart Biffle was able to take the lead, but a lap later Biffle drifted up the track in turn two, allowing Preece to go back to the lead. 

On lap 84 Biffle used a run off of turn two to get the lead back. Preece looked to get under Biffle into turn three on lap 87 but Biffle closed the door. 

On lap 89 Preece got under Biffle out of turn four coming to the white flag. The pair went side-by-side through turns one and two and down the backstretch on the final lap. Preece got the advantage in the low lane off of turn four and won the race to the checkered. 

“I was chasing the nitrous switch around,” Biffle said. “It was dangling and I was pushing the button and driving it with one hand. It was a lot of fun racing [Preece]. I checked up early getting into [turn] one on the last lap to try and … get inside of him and he knew what I was doing. I wanted the inside down in [turns] three and four. I couldn’t give up that much track position so I went for it and tried to crowd him down. We got together a little bit, but it was a lot of fun.” 

Preece didn’t realize until after the race that a yellow strobe on the trunk indicated when he was using the nitrous booster. The yellow light was flashing as Preece went through the final corners.

“I didn’t realize that when you hit it, it shows on the trunk strobe light when you’re using it,” Preece said. “So, I think everybody knew how much I was using it. It was a lot of fun. It was cool. It was a little push-to-pass.”

It was the 38th feature win at Stafford Preece, who is a former SK Modified champion at the track.

“To be able to race with these guys at my home track – a place that has made me who I am as a race car driver – is really special,” Preece said. “To have my daughter here, my family, my in-laws, my dad, and everybody here … it’s my hometown crowd, so it’s awesome.”