CONCORD, NH. – If Ryan Preece hopes to combat the malaise surrounding Stewart-Haas Racing’s current condition, he couldn’t have picked a better place than his home Cup track—New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
The Magic Mile has been kind to the 32-year-old Berlin, Connecticut racer over the years, from visiting the track as a spectator with his father and grandfather to making his NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour debut in 2007.
For Preece, there’s simply no place like home.
“It’s kind of like Martin Truex (Jr.) when he goes to Dover, right? Being in that New Jersey area,” Preece said. “It’s just a special feeling. So for me growing up in Connecticut, going up there, being that kid, riding a bike around in the merchandise hauler, and really just everything about it I love. I love the Northeast fans. I love the race track.
“I would say from a confidence standpoint, it’s a track that as soon as I walk in, I don’t have to think about, ‘Hey, you know, maybe I can drive it in here.’ I know every inch of that race track.”
The 2013 Whelen Modified champion amassed one win, eight top fives, and 14 top 10s in 26 starts on that tour at Loudon. But when Preece bet on himself by investing in a Joe Gibbs Racing Xfinity Series ride at NHMS in 2017 and finished second, he finally received the recognition he deserved.
Two years later, Preece experienced his first full season in Cup. In his fourth year in the series, his first with SHR, the affable driver has struggled along with the rest of his teammates. He came out strong at the Busch Clash at the LA Coliseum, where he led a race-high 43 laps and finished seventh, Preece hasn’t scored a top 10 since.
At Martinsville Speedway in April, Preece won the pole and led the first 135 laps but a speeding penalty mired the No. 41 Ford at the back of the field. With the inability to pass in the new car on shorter, flat tracks, Preece had to settle for 15th.
With seven races remaining in the regular Cup season and Preece sitting 25th in the standings, 81 points below the cutline, he knows Loudon is his best opportunity to turn his season around.
“I’ve been racing at New Hampshire since 2007, so think about 16 years of going and racing on that track,” Preece said. “There’s a lot of places that we go to on the NASCAR Cup schedule and a lot of us drivers that are newer, I don’t want to say have a disadvantage, but we don’t have as much track time as some of the others.
“So, when I go to New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and even though it’s been in different types of race cars, I look at this weekend as a similar opportunity as when we went to L.A. The quarter-mile background was something that really fit my style. With this Next Gen car and all my laps at New Hampshire, I feel like I have a good understanding of what I need to go fast there, and obviously, I hope it translates this weekend.”
Preece has six top-15 results in the first 19 races—four of which have come in his last seven starts. Despite the obstacles he has encountered this season, Preece believes the Chad Johnston-led team is moving in the right direction.
“I think we’ve gotten better,” Preece said. “We’ve gotten consistent, but not nearly where we want to be. I would say we’ve consistently been around the 15th spot and the next goal is top 10s, top fives. At Atlanta, I felt like we’ve been bringing closer cars. We’ve been bringing cars that I feel like I’m getting really comfortable with.
“So, this is a weekend that I feel like, similar to Martinsville, that if we execute, we bring a really fast race car, I do my job and we do everything right, we can sneak one in. I don’t think we’re not capable of winning. We’re certainly able to do that, so I would say New Hampshire, Richmond is somewhere I’m looking forward to going to and some of these road courses there are a lot of opportunities to try and be off on strategy and execute and win. I think that’s really the goal.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
