Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 60 car for RFK Racing, achieved a long-awaited milestone after six seasons and more than 220 races in the NASCAR Cup Series without a win. His inaugural victory came Wednesday at Bowman Gray, providing a crucial boost to his confidence ahead of the Daytona 500.
Preece reflected on the significance of winning, stating,
“I think most race car drivers will tell you it doesn’t matter if you’re racing in a shopping cart, in a Kroger parking lot, or at the clash or Daytona; winning matters to us,”
underscoring his passion for triumph at any level.
Career Milestone Revives Ambitions and Team Spirit
Though the win did not yield any Cup points, it held great importance for Preece, who has consistently competed at various levels but had yet to secure a Cup Series victory until now. He shared,
“When I look back on my career and the things that I’ve done, I didn’t want to go back to Connecticut and think about what could have been, or, ‘man, I never won a cup race at this level,’ because I’ve won in every type of race car I’ve ever been in.”
This breakthrough also ended a drought for RFK Racing, the team’s first win in over a year. Preece emphasized the motivational effect of victory, saying,
“I don’t know if they’ve experienced winning like this, and what I know from my own experience is when you win, it’ll create this monster in you where you want to win again. I know I had that burning desire and my team had it, but now they’re going to want it even more, and yeah, I believe in momentum and I believe our team is going to go into the Daytona 500 and we’re going to be ready.”
Challenges at Daytona and Looking Ahead
Despite his newly found triumph, Daytona has often been a difficult venue for Preece. He acknowledged,
“For whatever reason, Daytona doesn’t love me like I love it,”
reflecting on his challenging history at the track.
The 35-year-old driver has experienced two of the most harrowing crashes in recent Daytona history but remains optimistic. He explained,
“So I’m a believer in the law of averages, and I’ve had such a bad record here over time. We’ve been in the right place, we just haven’t had things go our way with what they call the big one, right. So if we can continue to just keep executing pit stops, executing stages, it’ll go our way one day and we can be lifting that trophy over our head in victory lane.”
Preece will join 40 other competitors in the upcoming events, starting with the Pole Qualifiers on Wednesday, followed by the Duels on Thursday. All eyes will be on the big race Sunday at 2:30 p.m., where Preece aims to translate his recent momentum into a strong Daytona 500 performance.
