By Don Coble, Jax Sports Wire
DAYTONA BEACH (www.thefloridasportswire) – Ryan Preece keyed his microphone and promised his team he planned to attack the Coke Zero Sugar 400 with everything he and his No. 60 RFK Ford had.
“If I was in a street fight, my knuckles would be pretty tore up right now,” the 35-year-old driver from Berlin, Connecticut said. “It was much like what I told you, it was going to be a heavyweight fight.”
Preece entered Saturday night’s regular season finale at the Daytona International Speedway on the outside of the 16-driver playoffs that start on Sunday at the Darlington Raceway. He was 31 points behind the final qualifier, Shane Van Gisbergen, needing a mechanical miracle to move into the Chase for the Championship.
He not only won for the first time in his 249-race NASCAR Cup Series career, he successfully passed Van Gisbergen in the standings.
“I gave it everything,” the winner said.
Preece survived a spin through the infield grass at the end of the first segment to race his way back into contention. With his Ford running on fumes, he drove to the bottom lane in the second turn to pass race leader Zane Smith.
Simultaneously, Daytona 500 winner Tyler Reddick hit Smith’s car and turned Smith into the wall. That triggered a massive crash that also involved Ryan Blaney, Daniel Suarez, Josh Berry, Austin Cindric, Alex Bowman, Michael McDowell and Ty Gibbs. It all happened in Preece’s rearview mirror, so he easily drove away from the melee and was ahead of Daniel Suarez when NASCAR displayed the caution flag to end the race more than a mile from the finish line.
“I just got wrecked,” Smith said. “I haven’t really seen a replay to break it down, but it’s just unfortunate to come that close and have it not work out. It felt like I didn’t even get a shot to survive with the 45 [Reddick] and just got wiped out.”
Van Gisbergen wound up 28th. He was also playing the fuel-stretching strategy, but his team calculated he was more than a lap short of finishing – especially since the race was extended by six laps of overtime. The extra pit stop dropped him from contention – and out of the playoff picture.
“Congrats to the 60,” the Kiwi from New Zealand said. “But one night doesn’t sum up our year. I guess we haven’t been good enough. It’s been cool to be close. Yeah, shame we’re not in it.”
Crew chief Derrick Finley matched his driver’s resilience. He defiantly passed on a final pit stop and gambled there were enough drops in the tank to finish. He also knew Preece was determined to fight his way clear of trouble and win the race.
“The one thing our 60 team has from top to bottom is a lot of grit. I mean, we don’t give up,” Finley said. “We fight until the bitter end. We don’t care if we’re running 30th, we’re going to run and fight and get 10th place out of the car.”
For Preece, Daytona also offered him some overdue redemption. He suffered the worst crash of his career in the 2023 summer race at Daytona. His car was struck by Erik Jones’ Chevrolet as they raced through the tri-oval with eight laps to go, causing it to get airborne and barrel roll 13 times. Saturday’s race was just the seventh time in 14 career starts his night didn’t end up on a wrecker’s hook.
“It feels really good to win at Daytona, a place that, I’m not being dramatic, but three years ago could have been life-changing,” Preece said. “That’s the risk you take as a race car driver.
“Every day I’m very thankful to be racing in the Cup Series. It’s not easy. Some people have an easier path than others. Every day I’d wake up and say, yeah, I wish I had it easy as well, but I am thankful to hell that I’ve had to fight for everything I’ve worked for and everything that I’ve won.”
Suarez was a close second, followed by Reddick in third, McDowell in fourth, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in fifth, Austin Cindric in sixth, Austin Dillon in seventh, Alex Bowman in eighth, Josh Berry in ninth and Cole Custer in 10th.
In addition to Preece, Cindric also locked his spot into the Chase. He will start the playoffs in 15th place. Preece also relished the fact he proved a lot of his distractors wrong.
“Last year there were a lot of keyboard warriors saying I was nothing,” he said. “Well, we just kicked their butts tonight.”
Joining Preece in that 10-race championship portion of the season will also be Team Penske’s Austin Cindric, who finished sixth Saturday night to claim the other of the two Chase positions to be decided at Daytona. His effort in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford was enough to maintain his 15th place in the standings, and he will start the Chase ranked just ahead of Preece.
The Chase will start with the Cook Out Southern 500 on Sunday with Denny Hamlin as the top-ranked driver.
Photo by Chris Graythen, Getty Images/NASCAR
