By Luis Torres, Staff Writer/Photographer
Six races into the NASCAR Cup Series campaign, Ryan Preece is off to a career start after years of being on the opposite end.
Scoring back-to-back top-10 finishes at Las Vegas and Homestead, which propelled Preece to 16th in the regular season standings has done wonders for the 34-year-old from Berlin, CT. In this sport, momentum does come a long way especially for a team like RFK Racing’s new No. 60 squad.
Already in their first season, Preece’s No. 60 team have shown tremendous pace and despite being collected in a big wreck that saw the Ford Mustang Dark Horse upside down in the Daytona 500, it’s been mostly positive outings ever since.
The best case of Preece’s momentum happened last Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway when the No. 60 RFK Racing organization clicked on all cylinders when it mattered most.
From a lightning quick stop where Preece called his crew gangsters for a job well-done to Preece doing the talking behind the wheel, it resulted in a ninth-place finish.
“When I say gangsters that’s just something I say, but they’re bad ass,” said Preece during Wednesday’s media availability. “I’m proud of them because I’m here every Wednesday and I enjoy doing pit practice with those guys.
“For me, I just do it as like a camaraderie, team building thing, and I know the level of effort and what I put into my racing, and what I enjoy is seeing the grind that those guys have, the want to win and the will to win.
“We’re gonna have our moments, don’t get me wrong. Nobody is perfect, so they’re gonna have a day or a time that it might be a struggle, but I’m gonna support them whether they’re having good times or bad times,” Preece continued.
“I want to praise them when they’re doing days like they did at Homestead. As far as the team, the pit crew side and knowing they were gonna be good, that’s not me.
“I feel like Brad (Keselowski) and Jack (Roush) and RFK, the Fenway Group, everybody here has done a phenomenal job in giving me every great opportunity I can have, so I’m really appreciative for the group that we have right now and the things that we’re building on.”
In addition to praising his pit crew, Preece’s mindset is assuring himself to make most out of an afternoon that can translate into a victory. Even if there are races where such goal isn’t in the cards, producing the best result possible can be just as rewarding.
“My goal for the first third of this season is if you have the opportunity to win the race, you need to go win that race,” said Preece. “If you don’t, we need to consistently be doing what we’re doing, which is being there in the top-12 and executing our days to have better days.
“I felt like at Homestead we qualified not very well and drove our way up into the top-12 and then we managed ourselves to get a ninth. Those are the things we need to do as a group right now and then just keep building that notebook.”
Preece explained that joining RFK Racing and working alongside crew chief Derrick Finley has been a positive experience thus far. Most notably, how Finley has managed the new group with few being around RFK for a while, mainly in the road crew department.
Among the attributes Preece appreciates about Finley is the winning mindset he bestows on the No. 60 team. The one thing that alludes Preece as he hopes to be the second first-time winner this season after fellow Ford driver and short track ace Josh Berry winning at Las Vegas two weeks ago where Preece finished third.
“I think for Derrick, which I’ll give him a lot of credit for, is teaching and instilling this mindset in guys that haven’t ever had the opportunity to race for wins and telling them to expect to try and win every given Sunday. I have that mindset,” Preece explained.
“I’ve had that mindset my entire life because that’s all I’ve done other than in the Cup Series there have been some struggles, but anything outside of that, you show up to the racetrack expecting to win, so I think the mindset of expect to win and run well is a mindset that Derrick is trying to instill in this group and I’ll give him a lot of credit because the attitude of RFK in general is the push for perfection, so that’s what we’re doing,” he continued.
“There’s just a lot of will to win and that’s the thing, it’s kind of like my racing career. I could have gave up chasing after this dream back in 2014, but there’s a piece inside of you that’s just gonna keep pushing and pushing and pushing and be relentless, and that’s this group.”
Thinking About the Present Rather Than What Lies Ahead
In addition of the momentum the No. 60 team are having, Preece is heading to a track he’s very familiar with and the site of his only Cup pole – Martinsville Speedway.
A venue he’s raced in the Modifieds many times over and one of his very early starts of his Cup career 10 years ago, Preece is much looking forward to racing at the 0.526-mile circuit.
Preece explained he likes his chances of running good at Martinsville as he’s vying for a third top-10 result in the Fastenal Ford which he’s never done before in Cup.
“I feel like over the past few years we’ve qualified really well at Martinsville, especially with this tire,” said Preece. “I think it’s something that I’m looking forward to things that I could definitely do better and hopefully do those things on Sunday.
“I’m looking forward to it, just being my background of short track racing and I’ve had success at Martinsville – not in the Cup Series, but in Modifieds and obviously this form of racing suits my style.”
Heading into Sunday’s Cook Out 400 (Sunday at 3:00 p.m. on FS1), the Cup drivers will be running one compound of Goodyear Eagles. They raced the same one last November which was overshadowed by controversy among the Round of 8 competitors who were fighting for a spot in the Championship 4.
This news came in light after Goodyear gave teams options to run two compounds at Phoenix Raceway earlier this month with various critiques.
From a traditionalist point of view, Preece said that he’s thrilled of only running the single compound as the need of two compounds isn’t necessary, especially at Martinsville.
“I’m OK with it and I also think the improvements that Goodyear has done and continues to do on the short track tire,” said Preece.
“How many years has it been since we’ve had an outside that prevails on a restart (at Martinsville)?
“We don’t need a second option to do that,” Preece continued.
“Now, from the strategy standpoint, if you have a tire that’s a little bit better and it can get you off cycle that can sometimes be interesting and nice, but you could also do the same things if you changed lengths or other things that create different strategies, rather than having a straight-up race of ‘Hey, we need to pit now.’
“So, I’m OK and I like the fact that we’re gonna bring a tire that in 90 or 100 laps that if you beat on it, you’re gonna pay the price. I think if we continue to go down that avenue and trying to keep getting even more and more aggressive, it’s only gonna be better and better.”
Among the topics discussed in Wednesday’s media availability were the current Cup car and how it races at Martinsville. Since its debut in 2022, the main criticism of the car has been the declining quality of short track racing in terms of on-track passes and tire compounds.
More so when comparing it to the Xfinity Series product at Martinsville that’s seen fender rubbing, swashbuckling battles that led to fights and thrilling finishes, something Preece disagrees as far as what constitutes great racing.
“I don’t even think the Xfinity Series racing at Martinsville is that great,” Preece commented. “I just see guys knocking each other out of the way. That’s it. I don’t think that’s racing. I can go to a local go kart track and knock a guy out of the way and do the same damn thing.
“I find that the Next Gen car if you smash a guy, you can’t stick your nose under the guy like you can in those cars, but as far as Goodyear saying that we’re getting to a point and maybe we are.
“But at the same time in the early 2000s when we had right height rules and guys started to figure out coil binding and how to put the car on the ground and have an aero advantage once you go on the racetrack, those are all things that we thought weren’t possible until we figure out that they are, so that’s the thing about racing.
“It’s constant innovation and progression and figuring out things that you didn’t think were possible, so that’s the exciting thing that we have to look forward to in our sport.”
Following Martinsville will be Darlington Raceway (Sunday, April 6 at 3:00 p.m. on FS1), another demanding driver’s track on the Cup calendar and the site of RFK’s best overall races a year ago with Brad Keselowski winning last spring.
Known to focus on one race at a time and not thinking ahead, Preece is also looking forward heading to Darlington with a team that ran superbly in recent memory.
“I haven’t even started really analyzing or looking at it, other than the fact that I know Chris was super-fast and Brad was super-fast, and they won,” said Preece. “I feel good about all the things that they’ve done as an organization, and I feel like our group is gonna be able to really heavily lean on both of those.
“When Monday comes, I’ll be all eyes on it, but Darlington is a place that I’ve always enjoyed racing and I felt like we, I can’t even remember where we ended up. I think we ended up ninth or 10th in the fall race, but somewhere around there. I might be completely off, but I felt like we ran pretty well and that makes me excited going into next weekend.”
While Darlington is on the back burner for the time being, Preece will be focusing on extending his top-10 streak at Martinsville Sunday.
In 11 previous Cup starts, Preece scored his best result last April when he finished ninth and led a race-high 135 laps in April 2023 when he scored his lone pole to date.
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