It was a tall order.
Make up a 31-point deficit. Win your first points-paying NASCAR Cup Series race. Do it at Daytona International Speedway, a place that had nearly ended your racing career twice in the previous three years. And while doing all that, hope the driver holding the final Chase spot had a sufficiently miserable evening.
Challenge met.
Ryan Preece scored a NASCAR version of a walk of homer Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway. He needed nothing short of victory to force his way into NASCAR’s Chase.
So naturally, he won.
In overtime.
After crashing at the end of the first stage.
Because apparently simply winning the race would have been too straightforward.
Earlier in the week, Preece had attended a team meeting with one very simple instruction for crew chief Derrick Finley and the No. 60 team.
Put me on offense.
And that’s exactly what they did.
“When you put our back against the wall, we swing hard,” Preece said after the victory.
But that plan nearly came apart almost immediately.
NASCAR arrived at Daytona with a new superspeedway package featuring less horsepower, less downforce and absolutely no practice. Which meant the opening laps were essentially 40 drivers attempting to learn a new race car while traveling at nearly 200 mph and sitting inches apart.
What could possibly go wrong?
The opening laps became a three-wide free-for-all as Kyle Larson charged from 10th to battle polesitter Ross Chastain and Chris Buescher at the front while everyone tried to figure out exactly what this new package would do.
Buescher was leading on the final lap of the opening stage when a shove from Larson sent him into the outside wall and then across the front of the field. Larson was collected, as was Buescher’s teammate, Preece.
All three slid through the infield grass, but somehow continued.
Out of the smoke emerged Shane van Gisbergen, who entered the night holding the final Chase position over Preece. SVG won the stage, his first stage victory on an oval, while Preece had already survived his first major problem of the evening.
Stage 2 began with fuel saving before the racing once again turned into something resembling a bowl of Hot Wheels being thrown down a staircase.
The lead changed hands constantly.
Austin Hill led. Chastain led. Chase Briscoe, Chase Elliott and Zane Smith all had their turns at the front.
Van Gisbergen faded while Preece, who started the stage 38th, worked his way inside the top five by Lap 55.
The message was becoming increasingly obvious: If Preece was going to make the Chase, waiting politely for something to happen was not going to cut it.
He needed to make things happen himself.
Team Penske eventually joined the party, with defending race winner Ryan Blaney leading by Lap 82 ahead of teammates Austin Cindric and Joey Logano.
Cindric took his turn at the front on Lap 85, followed by Preece. Blaney was pushed into the lead on the final lap of the stage by Preece, but Blaney and Elliott needed fuel and pitted before pit road was officially open.
They restarted at the rear but collected valuable stage points.
Preece, meanwhile, finished second.
Van Gisbergen was outside the top 10.
The final stage began on Lap 101, and suddenly just about everybody seemed capable of leading. Todd Gilliland, Briscoe, Brad Keselowski and even Cody Ware all spent time at the front.
Then strategy took over.
On Lap 121, a small group of Chevrolets led by Chastain pitted under green. Most of the leaders stayed on the track, setting up a fuel-saving exercise as the smaller group slowly began reeling them in.
Part of the larger group blinked and pitted with 17 laps remaining.
That left drivers including Zane Smith, Tyler Reddick and Preece to sort things out among themselves.
With 10 laps remaining, the gloves came off.
The racing became three-wide at the front, and with six laps remaining Smith was leading when Carson Hocevar, running third, attempted a bold move entering Turn 3. Hocevar got loose and rocketed into the outside wall.
Erik Jones had nowhere to go and slammed into him.
The race’s first caution for an on-track incident set up overtime.
A handful of drivers pitted, including van Gisbergen.
Smith, Reddick and Preece stayed out.
Smith led the first overtime lap and remained in front when the field took the white flag.
But Preece was on the inside entering Turn 2.
Behind Smith, Reddick delivered a shove that was just a bit too enthusiastic, sending Smith into the outside wall and triggering another Daytona-sized mess.
Preece emerged with the lead.
NASCAR held off throwing the caution as the field scrambled toward the finish, but another crash erupted behind the leaders, with Blaney spun into the outside wall.
This time NASCAR had no choice.
The caution flew.
The field was frozen.
And Ryan Preece was going to the Chase.
Meanwhile, van Gisbergen was caught in the first of the final two crashes and finished 28th, losing the final Chase position in the most brutal way possible.
“Pretty fresh now,” van Gisbergen said afterward. “Congrats to the 60.
“But one night doesn’t sum up our year. I guess we haven’t been good enough. It’s been cool to be close. Yeah, shame we’re not in it.”
Van Gisbergen said his season had still represented progress, particularly on NASCAR’s ovals.
“Bits of it were good,” he said. “As a team obviously we struggled. I’m proud that I’ve been able to match my teammates on the ovals. I think I’ve stepped up this year.
“But yeah, obviously you want to be in that Chase. Didn’t make it.”
For Preece, though, Saturday night was about everything finally going right.
And perhaps settling a few old scores along the way.
“I’m just speechless right now,” Preece said. “But those guys, that 60 group, we’re fighters. When you put our back against the wall, we swing hard.”
Then came the message for those who had doubted him.
“Last year there were a lot of keyboard warriors saying I was nothing,” Preece said. “Well, we just kicked their butts tonight.”
Preece also credited RFK for giving him a car capable of overcoming even an early-race crash.
“It’s a testament of how prepared these race cars are, man,” Preece said. “I’m a racer. I know what it takes to build speed. So every man and woman at RFK, thank you for giving me a rocket ship so I could go to the moon tonight.”
That rocket ship delivered him somewhere Preece desperately wanted to be.
The Chase.
And at Daytona, of all places.
“This is redemption,” Preece said.
Daniel Suarez, Reddick, Michael McDowell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rounded out the top five.
Next up is the first race of NASCAR’s 10-race Chase.
Preece goes from needing a miracle simply to get into the title fight to having a legitimate shot at chasing the biggest prize in the sport.
Van Gisbergen, meanwhile, will race the final 10 events with nothing to chase except trophies.
And glory.
But after Saturday night at Daytona, Ryan Preece probably doesn’t care what anyone thinks about the rest of it.
He was 31 points out.
He needed to win.
He crashed.
He won anyway.
And somewhere, those keyboard warriors are probably looking for the delete key.
RACE RESULTS
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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