RICHMOND, Va.: Ryan Preece has had a miserable NASCAR Cup Series season at Stewart-Haas Racing until Sunday’s Cook Out 400 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway.
Preece capitalized a well-balanced No. 41 United Rental Ford Mustang throughout the 400-laps of one of the hottest races of the season and overcame hiccups on pit road at the end of Stage 1 to finish fifth in the 22nd Cup Series race of the season.
After qualifying 11th on Saturday afternoon, Preece quickly entered the top-10 during Stage 1 of Sunday’s race and finished sixth in Stage 1.
Unfortunately, Preece lost all of his track position after an incursion with William Byron during the stop. The extra time on pit road dropped Preece to 18th for the Stage 2 restart.
Methodically, Preece was able to utilize a fast race car to his advantage, slicing and dicing his way through a slick race track to finish seventh in Stage 2.
Throughout Stage 3, Preece would have to wrestle a changing-race track and varying race strategies to keep himself in contention, but with crew chief Chad Johnston staying ahead of the chassis adjustments, Preece ran as high as third.
The only natural caution of the race waved with 10 laps remaining in the race, setting all the lead lap cars, including Preece to pit road for fresh tires and a restart within the final five laps of the race.
While leader Chris Buescher set sail for his first win of the season, the chaos of hard side-by-side and even three-wide racing sparked to life behind him with Preece finishing fifth at the checkered flag, capturing his first top-five finish since finishing fourth at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway in the summer race for JTG-Daughtery Racing.
“My confidence was I’ve seen what Chad has given here in year’s past and we talked a lot about what we were gonna need and I said, ‘Man, if you can get me to roll the center, I’ll deal with loose in,’ so that’s what he gave me today and this United Rentals Ford Mustang was pretty stout,” offered Preece after the race.
“Fifth, we lined up in that second row at the end, but we run more like this we’re gonna have more opportunities to challenge for wins.”
As an organization, Stewart-Haas Racing enjoyed its best race of the season as a company. Three of its four drivers finished inside the top-10 with Chase Briscoe just missing the top-10 with an 11th place outing.
Aric Almirola overcame a midrace penalty to boast the second-best effort from the SHR camp in eighth.
Like Preece, Kevin Harvick was able to hover inside the top-10 throughout the entire day and captured his 10th top-10 finish of the season.
And for Briscoe, while he didn’t deliver a top-10 finish, his top-11 effort was his second top-11 effort in the last three races after finishing 10th at New Hampshire two races ago.
Short track or not, Stewart-Haas Racing needed a performance like they delivered on Sunday, but perhaps no driver needed it more than Ryan Preece.
The expectations were high for the likeable 32-year-old Preece entering his first Cup season for SHR. Unfortunately, the season has been full of disappointment and frustration.
Many don’t point the finger directly at Preece for the lack of results, but many applauded the Berlin, Connecticut native on Sunday knowing if he had the speed he produced on Sunday, his fourth full-time season of Cup competition could be much different.
“We all did (run well). I think that’s just a product of working hard,” added Preece. “Sitting and twiddling your thumbs isn’t gonna get you the results that you really want.
“I know that from racing, so we’ve just been working hard and trying to find what I like, find what Aric (Almirola) likes, Kevin (Harvick) likes, Chase (Briscoe) likes and I feel like we’re all trending in that direction.”
Just four races remain in the regular season at Michigan International Speedway, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International and Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway and while Preece needs a win to vault his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing team into the 16-driver Playoff lineup, don’t count him out just yet.
Time and time again, the NASCAR Cup Series has produced crazy and unbelievable comeback stories, especially as the Playoffs approach.
While admittingly a longshot, this is NASCAR Racing and the boost of a top-five just might have been the momentum shot that Preece needs to help pull off the unthinkable.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01 or email at: [email protected].
