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Ryan Preece won his first Pole Award of 2025 at Richmond Raceway on Friday, and second of his career
Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway is a big deal for driver’s seeking to remain in, or break into, the top-16 Playoff positions.
One driver looking to bust the bubble and race his way in is Roush Fenway Keselowski’s own Ryan Preece and the No. 60 Ford team. With two races remaining to decide the Playoff contenders, the 34-year-old native of Berlin, CT is 17th trailing the cutoff by 34 points.
On Friday night, he made a great case for himself for Saturday’s Cook Out 400. He coursed the .75-mile oval in 22.244 seconds, one tenth ahead of another non-winning driver Tyler Reddick who sits +117 in 14th-place.
Currently in the coveted 16th-place position is Preece’s RFK teammate, the No. 17 Ford of Chris Buescher, who also has not won a race this year. He will start 12th.
This is Preece’s first Pole Award in 2025 and second of his 353 NCS starts, the other took place at Dover Motor Speedway in 2002.
Preece About Pole Award Run
“For me, going into qualifying and pushing the tire, pushing the grip level and all those things, you just don’t know what you’re going to have going into turn one,” he said. “As I’ve said over the past few months, just trust. I know I got it all because the amount of time I drove it in there, versus the grip she potentially had, was definitely on the limit.”
In it Together
While some may think Preece and Buescher would be at odds competing for the same thing, Preece said that isn’t the case. Matter of fact, the two teams are openly sharing information.
“I would agree with what Chris (Buescher) said last week because I actually watched his media availability, which is that nobody is hiding anything from anybody,” Preece said during his Friday Media Availability at Richmond. “That’s the truth. I was talking about the blacktop here today in turns one and two.
“I don’t think a lot of us really knew about it, and I didn’t even know about it until I went out in modified practice yesterday and noticed it, so I just communicated some of the thoughts I had on that.
“Scott (Graves, No. 17 Crew Chief,) Jeremy (Bullins, No. 6 Crew Chief for Brad Keselowski,) and Derrick (Finley, No. 60 Crew Chief,) they work really well together just like all of us drivers do. So, I think the environment that we have at RFK right now is a really good one and I don’t hide anything from them, they don’t hide anything from me and that’s what’s nice about being there.”
Preece Having Best Season Yet
His second season with RFK has produced some solid results. In addition to the points position, he has earned three off his seven-career top-five and 10 top-10 finishes which is twice what he achieved last year. A key component for success has been team communications.
“It started off really well and it’s only gotten better,” Preece said. “It’s been a lot of fun to be a part of and, honestly, our trailer is just something like I’ve never been a part of in my life. It’s been great and I think for having a spotter that’s never spotted in the Cup Series before, as well as a bunch of people on our team that this is really their first year in Cup.
Winning Solves Everything
“I feel really good about it,” Preece said. “For me, it’s trying to figure out what can I do as a race car driver to make it last better than somebody else. I think that’s going to be the key tomorrow night and then let Derrick and those guys work the strategy and figure out what we need to do from there.
“If you’re in a position for a green-white-checkered and you have an opportunity to win, when it comes Monday don’t think about what I should have done different.”
Tim Packman Tim Packman is a journalist for Heavy.com covering NASCAR. He grew up around the short tracks of Western New York watching his dad, stepdad and step brother race. His uncle was the head starter at many area tracks and member of the FOAR Score Hall of Fame.
Tim’s passion for racing took him to the announcer’s tower and writing program stores for multiple tracks in the area. In 2000, he moved to Mooresville, NC to become an award-winning journalist for NASCAR.com. He took a job with Dale Earnhardt, Inc. as the team’s Communications Director and was part of two Daytona 500 wins and two NASCAR Championships.
The announcing experience led to becoming a Pit Reporter and News Director for MRN Radio. A return to the team side at Richard Childress Racing as the Director of Corporate Communications took place, which also included another Championship.
From 2015 to 2018, Tim returned to where his career began in 1994 – Lancaster National Speedway & Dragway – as the Track President. He earned Short Track Promoter of the Year awards in 2016 and 2017.
Upon returning to NC, he joined The Garage Shop as Communications Director and host of it’s Podcast and MAV-TV docuseries “Legacy of Speed” talking about Land Speed Racing at Bonneville, and other places.
Tim has hosted two other Podcasts, namely “Pub Table Racers,” and wrote three books. One was with NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby Allison titled, “Bobby Allison, a Racer’s Racer” and two Children’s books, “Funny Dan the Race Car Man” and “Petey the Pace Car.”
He also served in the US Navy. More about Tim Packman
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