{"id":60430,"date":"2026-08-30T21:49:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T02:49:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=60430"},"modified":"2026-08-30T21:49:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T02:49:48","slug":"ryan-preece-was-immune-to-pressure-in-dramatic-daytona-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/30\/ryan-preece-was-immune-to-pressure-in-dramatic-daytona-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Preece was immune to pressure in dramatic Daytona win"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2014 In retrospect, Tom Cruise\u2019s presence at the Daytona International Speedway drivers\u2019 meeting couldn\u2019t have been more appropriate.<\/p>\n

\"\"

DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA – AUGUST 29: Tom Cruise attends the drivers meeting prior to the NASCAR Cup Series Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on August 29, 2026 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Cruise, who played upstart driver Cole Trickle in the 1990 film \u201cDays of Thunder,\u201d was there to announce that the long-awaited sequel would become reality in 2028.<\/p>\n

The story of the race that followed the meeting read like a movie script\u2014and an improbable one at that.<\/p>\n

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\u2019ll begin his pursuit of the championship in a 100-point hole to top seed Denny Hamlin.<\/p>\n

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\u2019Reilly Series race at Iowa Speedway.<\/p>\n

To use a golf analogy coined by Lee Trevino, Preece\u2019s gamble was like playing a five-dollar Nassau with 50 cents in your pocket.<\/p>\n

\"\"

DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA – AUGUST 29: Ryan Preece, driver of the #60 Kroger\/OIKOS Ford, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on August 29, 2026 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Before Saturday night\u2019s Cup Series race, the 35-year-old modified driver from Berlin, Connecticut, seemed outwardly calm. He was first to the drivers\u2019 meeting, appearing relaxed and self-assured.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The driver of the No. 60 RFK Ford certainly didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

Preece entered the event 31 points behind Trackhouse Racing\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Preece was a car-length ahead of Daniel Suarez when NASCAR called the fourth caution of the night and froze the field\u2014and made a first-time winner of Preece.<\/p>\n

Preece celebrated in Victory Lane with his family and his dog.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be able to bring my kids to Victory Lane and my wife to Victory Lane,\u201d an emotional Preece said after the race. \u201c(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.<\/p>\n

\u201cMan, this is what racers dream of. It wasn\u2019t given. It was earned. A lot of risk involved and I\u2019m damn proud to be doing it with (team co-owners) Mr. Jack Roush, Brad Keselowski and the Fenway Group at RFK, and with Ford.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Preece could be the exception, even with a deficit of 100 points to start the Chase.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started off consistent,\u201d he said of the 2026 season. \u201cWe 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2014 In retrospect, Tom Cruise\u2019s presence at the Daytona International Speedway drivers\u2019 meeting couldn\u2019t have been more appropriate. Cruise, who played upstart driver Cole Trickle in the 1990 film \u201cDays of Thunder,\u201d was there to announce that the long-awaited sequel would become reality in 2028. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":60416,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[287,16,580],"class_list":["post-60430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-daytona-international-speedway","tag-nascar","tag-ryan-preece"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-fIG","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2292639717-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60430"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60433,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60430\/revisions\/60433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}