NASCAR Whelen Modified Series standout Ryan Preece will have a huge opportunity to close out his part-time season on a high note after being tapped to drive Joe Gibbs Racing’s (JGR) No. 18 Toyota Camry for this Saturday afternoon’s Ford EcoBoost 300 at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway.
Preece will join Christopher Bell (No. 20) and Matt Tifft (No. 19) for the final NASCAR XFINITY Series race of the season to complete the trio.
Preece, a native of Berlin, CT. will make his fourth XFINITY Series start of the season, all driving for JGR. Earlier this year, Preece scored his first series win at Iowa Speedway in July besting JGR teammate Kyle Benjamin.
Bell and Preece will both contend for the owner’s championship for JGR. Preece will seek the fifth title for JGR after the Huntersville, N.C.-based team won the honors in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2013 respectively.
“I’m looking forward to another opportunity to be racing for Joe Gibbs Racing,” Preece told CATCHFENCE.com. “They have given me three opportunities so far this year to win and I’m looking to hopefully bring them the owners championship in return for this opportunity.
“I am looking forward to working with Eric Phillips (crew chief) and the No. 18 team over the course of this week in preparation for Homestead.”
In his three starts this season, Preece has impressed.
Making the most of his JGR debut at his home track of New Hampshire Motor Speedway, he qualified sixth, led two laps and finished a then career-best second to Kyle Busch.
After the Iowa win – the Huntersville, N.C. team gave the NASCAR Next alumnus gave him another opportunity at the standalone race at Kentucky Speedway, where the 26-year-old qualified second, led 22 laps before finishing fourth, his third consecutive top-five finish of 2017.
At Kentucky, Preece said his plans for 2018 remained unclear.
“Everything is kind of out of my hands at that point,” Preece said in September. “I’d love to be here full time or part time. You know, I’ve made that very clear. This is where I want to be. But I want to be contending for wins. I feel like I have to.
“All the experience that I got up to this point, I wouldn’t trade that for the world because it’s gotten me ready, but hopefully I can win and we’ll be talking about some other stuff in the future, but right now I don’t have a clue what’s happening next year.”
Preece’s 40th career XFINITY Series race and third at Homestead will be backed by Safelite Auto Glass, a Toyota partner.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
