DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A wave of new energy and optimism has arrived at JTG Daugherty Racing in the name of Ryan Preece.
Preece, a spectacle on the NASCAR Modified circuit across the Northeast will leave his fame and legacy behind for now and tame the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series fulltime in 2019 driving the No. 47 Kroger Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for JTG Daugherty Racing.
Preece has worked hard over the last four years to make himself a staple name across the national series front. From a subpar effort in the Xfinity Series with JD Motorsports to a limited schedule with Joe Gibbs Racing – which delivered two victories and an eventual path to the sport’s pinnacle level – Preece is ready to prove himself starting with Sunday’s Daytona 500.
“It’s slowly coming to me, for sure. I’ve been running around so much between running over to New Smyrna to get that car through tech, coming back here for practice and qualifying Saturday and Sunday and then going back to New Smyrna,” explained Preece. “I’ve been staying busy and haven’t had a lot of time to think about it. But it’s very exciting because this is what you work for to get here.
“Going from a quarter-mile in Riverhead in Long Island to a 2.5-mile oval at Daytona is totally different and very exciting.”
With a new rules package set to debut at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway next weekend designed to keep race cars close together, Preece believes his team who hasn’t won since 2014 can win this season.
And even though it’s been a while since the team pumped their fists in the air with a celebratory one, Preece knows with time they can reach that status.
“I think so. I plan on it,” added Preece. “It’s going to take a lot of hard work because it isn’t easy at this level. There are a lot of hard-working, smart people in this sport. But I feel like if our team works together and keeps building a package, a setup, a notebook throughout the season, we can be a contender.
I hear a lot of people say that JTG is a small team; the way I look at it is that we aren’t a small team. We are a two-car team. We could be just like Ganassi where they contend for wins. Just because we haven’t had that reputation yet of contending for wins doesn’t mean we won’t get there.
“I’ve learned in all of my racing that you find a setup, you build upon it and you fine-tune it. That’s what it’s going to come down to. I can’t set up the race car but I can tell you which corner we need to work on and keep making gains, so we constantly are making our car better.”
The unpredictability of the Daytona 500 could see Preece in Victory Lane sooner than he would have thought, but no mistake about it – the 28-year-old says any of the 40 drivers entered in the “Great American Race” have a shot at the checkered flag and the trophy, and he wouldn’t mind if it was him.
“All of them,” explained Preece about the number of drivers who could win Sunday. “You look at years past and all the torn-up racecars, you know anything can happen at Daytona.
“The smartest thing is to stay out of trouble. Lap 50, Lap 75, Lap 150… they don’t pay. The last lap pays. So, you have to be smart about where you are, keep your nose clean and at the end hopefully put yourself in the right position.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
