On Wednesday Feb. 4 Ryan Preece had the attention of the NASCAR world focused upon him after winning the Cup Series Cookout Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium.
Tuesday Preece was back in victory lane going back to his roots in racing.
Preece drove away from Patrick Emerling over the closing stages to win the 60-lap Tour Type Modified feature Tuesday at the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at New Smyrna Speedway.
“Just having a lot of fun,” Preece said. “These past seven days have been a lot of fun, racing with my dad, racing with my friends. To go from Bowman Gray, drive down here, race the Late Model and then race this Modified and get back into victory lane, it was really cool. For years I’ve been chasing after that field and I see the 60 car of Matt Hirschman and I feel like I wish he was here racing because I have something that could race with him. Maybe next year we can get that rivalry going again.”
It was the second of five consecutive nights of Tour Type Modified features at New Smyrna. Paulie Hartwig III won on opening night.
After missing Monday’s race due to a motor issues, Emerling ended up second on Tuesday.
“Hats off to the USNEPower 1 team,” Emerling said. “I’d like to thank them for the opportunity to come race here, Team owner David Miller] and the whole USNEPower team. We had a good car. [Preece] was really flying. We have a little bit to go.
Jimmy Blewett followed up a sixth place finish on Monday with a third place run.
“We just missed it a little bit on the tires tonight,” Blewett said. “We had the stagger open up on us where last night it closed when I was able to come from the back to the front. Top three finish for us, it’s basically a fresh team. … This car we have no notebook for. … We’re working hard at it. We’re just going to podium to death. If we can stay up front the rest of the week we’ve got a solid shot at taking him this points championship.”
Tyler Rypkema outran Preece on the first lap to take control at the front.
An Amy Catalano wreck on lap four brought out the first caution of the event. Under caution, Hartwig spent an extended time on pit road with his crew searching for a leak.
On the restart Rypkema was able to get the jump on Preece again out front.
On lap 18 Preece made a diving move under Rypkema into turn three and came out of turn with the lead. Ronnie Williams followed past Rypkema to second.
The second caution flew on lap 27 when ninth place running Stephen Kopcik wrecked by himself in turn three.
On the ensuing restart Preece got the jump on Ronnie Williams and Patrick Emerling. On lap 29 the third place running Williams fell off the pace and went to the pits.
By lap 45 Preece had opened up about three-quarters of a second lead over Emerling at the front with Blewett running third.
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