NEWTON, Iowa — Nine years ago, Iowa Speedway propelled Ryan Preece’s career in NASCAR as Preece earned his maiden national series win in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series at the Midwest short track.
Now, Preece returns to Iowa seeking his first career Cup Series victory at the venue that helped launch his journey to NASCAR’s top level. He’s also chasing down Austin Cindric for the 16th and final spot in The Chase as he trails the No. 2 Team Penske driver by 38 points.
Before addressing his current points situation, the New England native reflected on what that first NASCAR win provided for him.
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“I mean, it changed my life,” Preece told reporters Saturday at Iowa. “I was grinding away at Stafford (Motor Speedway), Thompson (Speedway), Riverhead (Raceway), up in the Northeast, and I remember the call I got because at the time, when I lived in North Carolina, I was living in Kevin Manion’s garage. He had an apartment there, and I moved back to Connecticut because I was like, ‘alright, I’m done chasing this.’ I wanted to go race for Eddie Partridge, chase after wins, feel like I could make a difference, and Kevin actually called me right before Speedweeks and said, ‘Hey, all these dominoes fell, and you need to try and put your name in the hat.’
“I just happened to be one of the lucky ones that I raced for some great people that believed in me and helped me go after this dream because without the funding, I’d still be racing modifieds. I love every bit of that garage. I love every bit of that part of the country, but very thankful that everything came together that day for me because ultimately that’s what changed my wife’s life, our lives, and here we are.”
Short tracks are Preece’s wheelhouse, and the No. 60 RFK Racing driver could find himself in a good spot with a three-race stretch that consists of Iowa, Richmond Raceway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway, all measuring approximately 1 mile or less.
Preece comes off the bye weekend with back-to-back top 10s and appreciates that the full body of work across the 26-race regular season factors into making The Chase.
“Iowa, Richmond, New Hampshire are all places that I would think we should be a threat,” Preece said. “We made sure we put a lot of effort into coming to Iowa and I feel like it’s going to translate. We had a lot of things go our way last year to be able to finish fifth. So we put in quite a bit of time when it came to our simulator, and we’ll see if that translates. But it’s not going to be from lack of effort.
“When it comes to making The Chase, you work all year to be able to be in that final 10-race battle and put yourself in it. So it would be nice to fight our way back in because the month of May and June were just as bad as you can get from a team standpoint. It was really challenging, but those are the moments that really define you. We had a lot of things go our way the past couple weeks and I feel like our group is looking forward to these next three weeks and trying to put it all together. I’ve really enjoyed that we’ve gone to this format again because it’s not just necessarily about winning and then you have one good day and it puts you in the playoffs. It still matters about putting together a good season.”
While only one RFK driver currently sits inside The Chase (Chris Buescher — ninth), Preece says he loves the dynamic between himself, Buescher and teammate/co-owner Brad Keselowski, and the communication and information they share could give the No. 60 team the push they need in the final August stretch to qualify for The Chase.
“We all kind of give our opinions of what we’re looking for and feeling, and we can work in a way together to get us there,” Preece said. “It’s honestly been a lot of fun to work with these guys because Chris is really, for me, I enjoy analyzing his style at mile-and-a-halves and what he does to make speed, and then Brad, he’s really good at chess. It’s like sitting down with somebody that understands your next three moves when we go to these mile-and-a-halves and a lot of these other places. I feel like when it comes to short-track racing, I’ve been doing it for so long as many of us, I just have a good background and feel for what I want on short tracks. So I feel like, especially this week, I’m very hopeful that we have a lot of speed off the truck and we can show that on Sunday.”
Preece will roll off the starting grid 35th in Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 (3:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).