By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — In retrospect, Tom Cruise’s presence at the Daytona International Speedway drivers’ meeting couldn’t have been more appropriate.
Cruise, who played upstart driver Cole Trickle in the 1990 film “Days of Thunder,” was there to announce that the long-awaited sequel would become reality in 2028.
The story of the race that followed the meeting read like a movie script—and an improbable one at that.
Ultimately, Ryan Preece won the Coke Zero Sugar 400 to claim the final spot in the NASCAR Cup Series Chase, and next Sunday at Darlington Raceway he’ll begin his pursuit of the championship in a 100-point hole to top seed Denny Hamlin.
Preece is used to the crucible of high-pressure moments. In 2017, he borrowed money to buy the best ride he could find for a NASCAR O’Reilly Series race at Iowa Speedway.
To use a golf analogy coined by Lee Trevino, Preece’s gamble was like playing a five-dollar Nassau with 50 cents in your pocket.
But in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Preece won that race from the pole in a victory that launched his career into the highest echelons of stock car racing.
Before Saturday night’s Cup Series race, the 35-year-old modified driver from Berlin, Connecticut, seemed outwardly calm. He was first to the drivers’ meeting, appearing relaxed and self-assured.
Earlier, Preece had bounced into the Daytona media center to pay off a pledge he and RFK Racing team owner/driver Brad Keselowski had made to the NASCAR Foundation, one that involved dunking The Athletic journalists Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi.
The driver of the No. 60 RFK Ford certainly didn’t seem like a man overwhelmed by the prospect of winning his first Cup Series points race after failing to do so in his previous 248 tries.
Preece entered the event 31 points behind Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen in the battle for the final Chase spot. Nearing the end of the first stage, the race took an ugly turn for the New Englander.
Running near the front of the field, Preece was collected in a three-car accident also involving teammate Chris Buescher and Kyle Larson and sustained damage to the left-front corner of his Mustang.
To make matters worse, van Gisbergen won the stage for a net of seven points over Preece, who slid across the finish line in eighth place.
The real drama, however, was reserved for overtime. By then, Preece could advance to the Chase only by winning the race, and on the final lap, he pulled ahead of Zane Smith and Tyler Reddick as a third of the field wrecked behind him.
Preece was a car-length ahead of Daniel Suarez when NASCAR called the fourth caution of the night and froze the field—and made a first-time winner of Preece.
Preece celebrated in Victory Lane with his family and his dog.
“To be able to bring my kids to Victory Lane and my wife to Victory Lane,” an emotional Preece said after the race. “(Wife) Heather has been there from when I was broke and trying to win a Stafford (Speedway) race on a Friday night so I can get my 25 percent and make $400, to her not knowing that I borrowed money and I had to pay it back somehow, to using her credit card to go get shoes at Iowa because I forgot my shoes and they were wore out that time in 2017, to moving down to North Carolina away from her friends and away from her family to chase a dream with me.
“Man, this is what racers dream of. It wasn’t given. It was earned. A lot of risk involved and I’m damn proud to be doing it with (team co-owners) Mr. Jack Roush, Brad Keselowski and the Fenway Group at RFK, and with Ford.”
Typically, the drama involving the last qualifiers for the Chase dissipates when the actual race for the championship begins. In former Chase years (before 2014), those who barely made the postseason generally were quick to fall behind.
Preece could be the exception, even with a deficit of 100 points to start the Chase.
“We started off consistent,” he said of the 2026 season. “We had a bit of a slump there in May and June, and we sort of found our way over the past few weeks, especially last week.
“We were a contender at Loudon. We were a contender tonight. Denny (Hamlin) and those guys have been really fast, but it would be great to go on one hell of a run.”
