William Byron’s new pairing with Chad Knaus has come full circle

Posted on February 13, 2019February 13, 2019 by Reid Spencer

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The 40th anniversary of the race that put NASCAR on the map is all but lost on William Byron.

When Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison wrecked in the closing laps of the 1979 Daytona 500—and tried to settle their differences with fisticuffs afterward—Byron wasn’t around.

In fact, when Jimmie Johnson won his first career pole at Daytona in 2002, Byron was more than nine months away from his fifth birthday. As he grew older, he paid attention to Johnson’s success with crew chief Chad Knaus.

“I mean, I’m so young, I wasn’t around for a lot of that,” Byron said of the 1979 race. “I guess, like, growing up watching, honestly, Jimmie and Chad win races at the 500, then watching Kevin Harvick win in 2007—those are the races that stick in my mind.

“I’m trying to make memories for myself. It’s cool to see some of that stuff come around full circle.”

Team owner Rick Hendrick closed the circle with a personnel shuffle that broke up the Johnson/Knaus pairing after 17 years and brought the seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion crew chief to Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet.

That’s something Byron couldn’t have imagined when, as a driver for the Hendrick Motorsports-affiliated JR Motorsports NASCAR Xfinity Series team, he met Knaus for the first time.

“No, definitely not, definitely not,” Byron said on Wednesday during Daytona 500 media day at Daytona International Speedway. “That’s a crazy thought to think a couple of years ago, that I could have him as a crew chief.

“But a huge honor, and something that I’m looking forward to.”

Byron already has something he can look back on, too. On Sunday, with Knaus on his pit box, the 21-year-old driver won his first career Busch Pole, securing the top starting spot for Sunday’s season-opening Daytona 500 (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Hendrick Motorsports drivers had the four fastest laps in the final round, with Alex Bowman, Johnson and Chase Elliott trailing Byron.

Johnson and Knaus won the Daytona 500 pole in their first race together. Byron and Knaus did the same, a testament to how quickly the young driver and veteran crew chief have adapted to each other.

“He’s exciting to work with,” Byron said. “He’s super into anything racing-related, whether it’s car-related or driver-related. He’s helped me a lot with a lot of things I didn’t really expect him to really care about that much.

“He cares about me as a person. That builds a level of trust and respect between us. Still a lot… still very fresh and very new of a relationship. We’ve worked a lot in the offseason to make sure it’s the way it should be.”

Byron can look back on his first pole, but he’d prefer not to look much further, opting to put a rocky 2018 rookie season in the Cup series behind him. With an average finish of 22.1 and four top 10s in 36 points races, Byron finished the year 23rd in the standings.

With a new crew chief and a new competition package this season, he can discard much of last year without regret.

“Honestly, I don’t think about it that much right now,” Byron said. “I kind of blocked out most of that last year, other than the things I learned about myself mentally. But honestly, there’s not really a lot that’s similar to last year with us, besides the (car) number and the way the car looks.

“Don’t really think about it.”

MORE: Byron wins Sunoco Rookie of the Year | All Byron’s national series wins

With three days between his qualifying laps and his Gander RV Duel At Daytona 150-mile qualifying race on Thursday, Byron is eager to start racing.

“I’m ready to get in a car,” Byron said. “I’m tired of talking about it. I just want to go race. Can’t wait to get into the car.”

The nature of superspeedway racing tends to minimize the advantage a pole winner might have. It’s not particularly surprising that no Daytona pole sitter has won the 500 since Dale Jarrett took the checkered flag 19 years ago. Byron hopes to break that trend.

“That would be awesome,” Byron allowed. “Hopefully, if it’s in the plan, I guess meant to be, it will be. We’ll see what happens.”

Posted on February 13, 2019April 1, 2021 by Staff Report

Can he avoid the sophomore slump?

Time will tell, but Tommy Catalano is certainly hoping he can.

The Ontario, New York, native won the Sunoco Rookie of the Year award on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour last year on the strength of two top-10 finishes, and he is hoping to take his family-owned operation to the next level in 2019.

“That was pretty huge for us, especially going into it, we were the underdogs. We were just the small local guys,” Catalano said. “To have our moments that we ran with the big guys, it was really huge. At the end of the year, I was thinking to myself that my goal was to go to the races and finish inside the top-15 and make all the laps — and we did that 95% of the time.”

RACING-REFERENCE: Tommy Catalano’s Rookie of the Year Stats

He’s no stranger to success in racing. He won countless NASCAR Whelen All-American Series track championships before taking his talents to the Whelen Modified Tour, and in just his first Tour season, he won the Rookie of the Year in convincing fashion.

Now the goals are going to be even more difficult for him to complete going forward. He will be back on the Whelen Modified Tour for the entire 17-race slate in 2019, but now, he’s going after wins, and he has a veteran helping him chase the goal.

“Hopefully we can build on it,” he said of last year. “We will see exactly what we have and what we don’t have. We have Tommy (Baldwin) helping us, so hopefully between all that, we should be able to start the year off on a good note.”

Catalano purchased a brand new Troyer TA3 chassis over the offseason and is looking forward to letting it hit the track in Whelen Modified Tour competition. However, that car won’t hit the pavement for the opener at Myrtle Beach Speedway on March 16.

Instead, he will bring a car back to South Carolina that has already been to Victory Lane at the .538-mile oval last year — in November — as part of a Modified race at the Myrtle Beach 400.

“That’s going to be huge for us to go back there,” Catalano said. “The car that we won with at Myrtle Beach is shelved, up in the air, and sitting pretty, because we are going to take it back there just where we left with it.”

But, before the Whelen Modified Tour season gets underway, Catalano is competing in some Tour Type Modified action at New Smyrna Speedway as part of the 53rd annual World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing.

He finished towards the back of the field on night one after a mechanical issue, but rebound to a fifth-place finish on Tuesday after starting from the outside pole and leading laps.

“We’ve been struggling a bit with mainly some gremlins, but I don’t think it’s the car, it’s just those gremlins you get. That’s why we come down here,” he said. “It’s a little family vacation and we can test and get all of the gremlins out of the cars. We don’t have to go to Myrtle Beach and be at that first race and waste it chasing gremlins. It’s about getting everything set and ready to go.”

Ask him what he feels like are realistic goals are for this year and the answer won’t surprise you. He is hoping to contend for wins and leave each race with more and more confidence.

“I think we are ready to go. We are going to hammer down hard. We have a lot of good guys behind us, with Tommy helping, between all of it, I’m sure we will have our moments where we will be hanging our heads, but the second year on the Tour, everyone is going to have those days. If we can just move past those days, there are going to be better days ahead,” Catalano said.

“At the end of last year I wasn’t sure we were ready for wins, but after the showing at Myrtle Beach, I am really hoping to go there and have a strong run. Everyone keeps saying the Whelen Modified Tour guys weren’t there (at Myrtle Beach) but we out-did Matt Hirschman the second night and he is one of the ones to beat when the Tour goes there. That was the biggest confidence booster out of all of it so far.”

Posted on February 13, 2019April 1, 2021 by Staff Report

NEW SMYRNA, Fla. — Just five days before beginning his first full-time season in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Ryan Preece was in Victory Lane on Tuesday night.

The Berlin, Connecticut, driver took the lead just before the halfway point in the Tour Type Modified feature at New Smyrna Speedway and drove away in the final circuits. His victory came as part of the 53rd annual World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing.

New Smyrna Speedway is just 20 minutes up the road from Daytona International Speedway, where Preece will run the Daytona 500 on Sunday.

“I used to be labeled as a guy who burned my stuff up quickly, but I’ve really done a lot with my setups to make them better in the long run,” Preece said. “I think it showed right there. This car is just so good right now.”

Preece qualified at the top of the field and the invert of eight put him on the outside of row four for the green flag. However, it wasn’t long before Preece was slicing through traffic and finding his way to the front — where he eventually stayed.

After a crash in turn two that collected multiple top contenders, Preece drove away from Jimmy Blewett to win the second Modified race of the week. Blewett was second and Doug Coby, who won on Monday night, third.

Even though he struggled to find speed on opening night, Bubba Pollard isn’t messing around this week.

The Super Late Model veteran dominated Tuesday’s 50-lap Super Late Model feature as part of the World Series, picking up his second straight victory. Pollard qualified seventh, but by luck of the draw, an invert of eight lined him up on the outside of the front row for the drop of the green flag.

Just as he did on Monday, Pollard found himself in second spot for the first half of the race, but didn’t hiccup when an opportunity to take the lead came in front of him. He passes Derek Kraus with just 17 laps remaining.

“Can’t thank this group of guys enough,” Pollard said. “It’s a great group. When you surround yourself with great people, they make my job easy, and they make me look good.”

Brad May finished second, grabbing his third straight podium to open the week. Dan Fredrickson, who led countless laps on Monday, finished third.

All eight nights of NASCAR Whelen All-American Series action are airing live on FansChoice.TV. Racing continues on Wednesday night, where the Tour Type Modifieds will compete in the John Blewett III Memorial 76-lap feature.

Results: World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing Night 5:

Tour Type Modifieds: 1. Ryan Preece; 2. Jimmy Blewett; 3. Doug Coby; 4. Chuck Hossfeld; 5. Tommy Catalano; 6. Amy Catalano; 7. Anthony Nocella; 8. Calvin Carroll; 9. Jeff Goodale; 10. Dave Sapienza; 11. Chris Risdale; 12. Nikki Carroll; 13. Andy Jankowiak; 14. Dillon Steuer; 15. Jeremy Gerstner; 16. Timmy Solomito; 17. Patrick Emerling; 18. Matt Hirschman; 19. Jeff Gallup; 20. Mike Willis Jr.; 21. Al Amarino; 22. Tom Tonn

Super Late Models: 1. Bubba Pollard; 2. Brad May; 3. Dan Fredrickson; 4. Derek Griffith; 5. Logan Seavey; 6. Derek Kraus; 7. Alex Labbe; 8. Travis Braden; 9. Gabe Sommers; 10. Nolan Pope; 11. Clay Greenfield; 12. Colin Garrett; 13. Spencer Davis; 14. Harold Crooms; 15. Jett Noland; 16. Carson Kvapil; 17. Anthony Sergi; 18. Sam Mayer; 19. Christian Rose; 20. Ryan Moore; 21. Jared Irvan; 22. Patrick Thomas; 23. Steve Weaver, Jr.

Posted on February 13, 2019 by Holly Cain

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Martin Truex Jr. showed up for Daytona 500 Media Day looking relaxed but speaking of high expectations for his debut season driving the No. 19 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Truex moved to the Gibbs stable this year after spending five seasons with the Furniture Row Racing organization where he enjoyed the best year of his career – winning eight races (more than his previous entire career total of seven) en route to the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship trophy.

Because of the working relationship between FRR and the Gibbs organizations, he said the transition to the championship Gibbs group has “fortunately” been relatively seamless. Now he and his crew chief Cole Pearn can join company competition meetings in person instead of via satellite.

The expectation is to win immediately. And often.

“I would say that it was a lot easier,” Truex, 38, said with a smile during Media Day to preview Sunday’s Daytona 500 (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “A lot less unknowns. Less nervous about it just because I know things. I talk about simple things like I know what their brakes are like. I know what their throttle pedal feels like. I know what kind of steering they run.

RELATED: Truex joins JGR

“When I’ve switched teams before it’s like starting over a lot of times. When I went from DEI (Dale Earnhardt Incorporated) to MWR (Michael Waltrip Racing) it was like completely starting over. All new people. All different parts and pieces. All new equipment. Everything felt different. The approach was different. That’s where you kind of have that anxiety of, ‘How’s this really going to be?’ I think it’s going to be good, but I don’t know.

“There’s so many questions when you switch teams like that. For this transition for me, it was a lot easier because we worked so closely together the past couple of years. We’ve essentially built our cars together. We used all the same stuff – parts and pieces, engines, you name it. I’m familiar with all that. I’m familiar with their process. The way they do things. The way they work together. The way their meetings are. You name it, it’s a comfortable change. For me, it’s been as easy as it’s ever been to switch teams like this year.”

Obviously the first big goal for Truex is a good showing in the Daytona 500. The closest he came to winning it was the closest anyone came to winning it – one-hundredth of a second. He finished alongside Denny Hamlin – now a teammate at JGR – in a 2016 finish so close officials had to review it.

PHOTOS: Closest finishes in Daytona 500 history

Ultimately Hamlin hoisted the trophy. Truex is still pursuing it – eager to add a Daytona 500 triumph to his championship career. He has three top-10 finishes in 14 races at the annual race and was 18th last year.

“I guess it can be frustrating, but anything that big is not easy to get,” Truex recalled, shaking his head. “It’s just the way it is. You look at Dale Earnhardt, it took him 17 tries or something – 20. He won the most races at Daytona of anyone ever and he hadn’t won the Daytona 500. That just shows how hard it is to win.

“I don’t think that’s changed over the years. You look at a guy like Trevor Bayne – he came out of nowhere and won the thing (in 2011) and never won any other races. It’s one of those races where crazy things tend to happen. Huge stories tend to come out of it and that’s part of the reason why it’s such a big deal.”

This year, in this circumstance, it would also be a statement.

Truex is driving for the fourth team in his 13-year full-time career. He won races for the previous three and would love to land Gibbs a fifth Cup title.

Last year he made a run at back-to-back championships – unofficially a part of the 2018 “Big Three” of eight-time race winners Kevin Harvick and Truex’s new teammate at JGR, Kyle Busch. Truex was a four-time winner and the threesome were the year’s winningest.

“Everybody in the garage wants to be one of those guys that are looked at as, ‘Here’s the guys to beat every week,'” Truex said. “We all want to be there.

“It’s been fun to be in that position for a couple years. No guarantee that we’ll be there again. You never know who’s going to figure it out quick and come out – some guy could come out of nowhere this season, you never know because it’s going to be so different. I don’t know.

“There’s a lot to learn. I really don’t worry about all that stuff. I worry about results. I want to win races and if we do our jobs and if I’m happy with the job I’m doing then yeah, I’ll probably be one of those Big Three.”

Posted on February 13, 2019February 15, 2019 by Staff Report

Johnny Sauter will return to ThorSport Racing for the 2019 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series as part of the Sandusky, Ohio-based organization’s full-time, four-truck lineup.

Sauter ran for ThorSport from 2009 to 2015 before spending the past three seasons — including a 2016 championship campaign — with GMS Racing. In January, GMS and Sauter parted ways following a three-year stint together. The Wisconsin native will run ThorSport’s No. 13 entry — the same entry he drove for the team from 2009 to 2012. The 23-time winner in the series has finished in the top four in the final standings in each of the past six seasons.

Two-time champion Matt Crafton, Grant Enfinger and Ben Rhodes are all returning to the organization for full seasons. The trio of drivers all made the 2018 playoffs in the series. Crafton, a 14-time winner in the series, will be back to pilot the No. 88 truck. Enfinger, a two-time winner in the series coming off a career-best fifth-place finish in the standings, will be in the No. 98 truck.

Rhodes returns for his fourth season with the team but will sport a new number — No. 99. This marks the two-time winner’s third different number in four seasons with ThorSport. He previously drove the Nos. 41 and 27 trucks.

Myatt Snider, last year’s Sunoco Rookie of the Year winner in the series, will return in a part-time capacity and drive the No, 27 truck.

The season begins this weekend at Daytona for Friday’s NextEra Energy 250 (7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on February 13, 2019February 13, 2019 by Zack Albert

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Paul Menard came close last weekend but did not win the Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona. He still went to Disney World.

Three days after the late-race run-in with Jimmie Johnson that derailed his chances, Menard said he was trying to turn the page on Sunday’s incident at Daytona International Speedway. He said that he spoke with Johnson on Wednesday morning, before his appearance later that afternoon at Daytona 500 Media Day.

“It is what it is, right? I felt like I was holding a wheel as good as I could,” said Menard, who led 51 of the exhibition race’s 59 laps in the Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 Ford. “I thought up front would be a pretty safe place, too, but Jimmie did what he did to try to win. It was not intentional. Maybe I moved down a little bit, I don’t know if there was no room for error, and two cars collided. So that’s what it is. I spent the last two days at Disney World with my two little kids and had a good time.”

Menard will aim to regroup ahead of Sunday’s main event, the 61st Daytona 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Though he had pointed comments for Johnson — the race’s eventual winner — in post-race interviews, Menard indicated that he was trying to let the heated moments pass.

“We’re moving on,” Menard said. “What’s done is done. We’re not looking in the rear-view mirror on that one, just moving on.”

Johnson appeared in a later media session and said that after his discussion with Menard, there’s a better understanding between the two. Johnson’s stance that their late-race contact was not initiated on purpose hasn’t changed since Sunday.

“I don’t know if there’s really anything different,” Johnson said. “I mean, it’s great to have that conversation and talk to him. He knew then and he knows again after today, our phone call, that it wasn’t intentional. Looking back, I could’ve given him a few more inches, that way when he came down, there was a bit more margin for error between us. There’s always lessons to learn going back and looking at the tape and talking to someone about those things, but I think where he and I stand, I’m sure he wasn’t happy after the race, but he knew it wasn’t intentional, and it was more of racing thing than anything.”

Posted on February 13, 2019February 13, 2019 by Staff Report

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Perennial championship contender Kyle Busch said Wednesday during Daytona 500 Media Day that he and Joe Gibbs Racing officials are close to signing a contract extension.

“We’re in discussions right now,” Busch said. “We’re talking. It’s all been agreed to. It’s just a matter of putting a pen to the paper, so. We’re all good.”

RELATED: Pics from Busch’s wins

Busch has 51 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series wins — second most among active drivers, behind only Jimmie Johnson — and 47 of those came in the No. 18 Toyota. He won the series championship in 2015 and is coming off one of the best years of his career. “Rowdy” won eight races in 2018 and made the Championship 4, finishing fourth in the final standings.

Busch’s current deal is believed to run through 2019. He and team owner Joe Gibbs announced in November 2015 that the two sides had signed a multi-year agreement.

Since that announcement alone, Busch has 17 wins and 53 top-five finishes in the ensuing three seasons.

He enters 2019 nearing 200 total wins across all three NASCAR national series — his 194 victories include the 51 Cup wins, 92 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and 51 in the Gander Outdoors Truck Series.

MORE: One thing missing for ‘Rowdy’

Posted on February 13, 2019February 13, 2019 by Holly Cain

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.— Denny Hamlin readily acknowledges that when he shows up at Daytona International Speedway, he is a race favorite. He’s earned that distinction as a former Daytona 500 winner.

But this year a victory in the sport’s biggest race wouldn’t only be of historical significance but put an end to the longest winless streak in the 38-year old Virginian’s decorated Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career. Last year he did not win a race for the first time since his 2006 rookie season.

“I feel pretty optimistic,’’ Hamlin said, sitting down to meet with reporters during the annual Daytona 500 Media Day. “I would say about the same as usual to be honest with you.

“I thought The Clash (last Sunday afternoon) kind of gave us an indication that we were able to kind of get up front even starting last. We got up front in a timely manner. No surprises really from that, so there’s no reason to think otherwise that we can’t win.”

This year, his showing in the Feb. 17 Daytona 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusNASCAR Radio) will be especially important and, frankly, sentimental as he has dedicated his season to one of his biggest supporters, J.D. Gibbs, 49, who passed away last month after a long illness.

Gibbs, son of Joe Gibbs Racing founder Joe Gibbs, died on Jan. 11 from a degenerative neurological disease. J.D. was not only president of the NASCAR championship organization but he was the person who signed Hamlin to the team in 2005. It was a relationship established on talent but built on equal parts friendship and business. And this week, Hamlin still looked pained and sentimental thinking of the loss.

“It’ll be super important (to do well),’’ Hamlin said. “Everyone knows how important he was for me and my career and everything he did for us, so certainly having success on track will be crucial for that. Now that I pledged $111 for every lap that we lead, it’s going to be important for me to get up front and get up front often.”

Up front is a reasonable and likely place to find Hamlin at Daytona International Speedway. His work in the Daytona 500 – specifically – and Speedweeks in general, is undoubtedly a career highlight reel. He is the 2016 Daytona 500 winner, earned three victories in the Duel at Daytona qualifying races and three wins in the Advance Auto Parts Clash – including his first career Cup-level victory as a rookie in the 2006 Clash non-points race.

His 267 laps led in the Daytona 500 is most in this year’s field as are his 407 total laps led at Daytona International Speedway (also including the summer’s Coke Zero 400).

Hamlin is also among the sport’s most elite company winning both the Clash and the Daytona 500 in the same year – something that’s occurred only six times total.

This season Hamlin’s No. 11 FedEx Toyota will have a new crew chief in Chris Gabehart, who moved up from JGR’s NASCAR Xfinity Series stable. Interestingly, as much pressure as there is in the sport’s most celebrated race, Hamlin thinks the Daytona 500 restrictor plate race may well be the best kind of transition for a new crew chief.

“I think it’s actually a good race to start with a new crew chief because you’re not really talking about handling that much,’’ Hamlin said. “It’s a good one to just kind of get your feet wet on the communication side of things. What his lingo is on the radio versus mine, so I think it’s actually a good start to the year.

“Even for the drivers that are in new situations, to start a year on a superspeedway where you’re not really having to fix the car much. It’s kind of more about the driver and how he strategically makes his way through the pack.”

PREVIEW: What’s the 2019 outlook for Joe Gibbs Racing?

A win or even a good showing in the 500 would certainly continue the kind of positive energy Hamlin showed in the end of last year.

He finished a season-best runner-up twice (at Dover and Martinsville) during the 10-race 2018 Playoffs to end the season and finished 11th in the overall standings. He earned four pole positions and sat on pole for the season finale at Homestead, Fla.

It’s all eyes ahead.

“I’m looking forward to this one more than looking back on the last one simply because there’s just nothing I can change from this past year,’’ Hamlin said. “I couldn’t help the bad breaks that we had or the things that went wrong. All you can do is just figure out how can that not happen again.

“With a new crew chief, you’re obviously also working on what do we need to do to communicate better? What do you need from me and what do I need from you and that’s the most important thing that we really worked on.

“You always feel like you have something to prove, but certainly this year in particular, I’m very fired up to go out there and win. Not one race, not two races, not even three – just like multiple races and show that we are a contender each and every week just like I know that we are.

“You can always talk about the ones that got away last year, but that was last year. So what, now what? We’ve got to figure out what we’re going to do to change the narrative of our team that we’re on the decline.”

NEW LOOK: See Hamlin’s fresh paint scheme for 2019

Posted on February 13, 2019February 13, 2019 by

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Everyone knows the friendship between Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott off the race track.

But how about the one between Blaney and Chase’s father, Bill Elliott?

Blaney got to know the Hall of Fame driver a little better during a four-hour, music-less drive with the two Elliotts to Colorado last season between races in Texas and Phoenix.

MORE: Chase Elliott career photos

“Bill doesn’t listen to the radio, so it’s dead silent,” Blaney recalled Wednesday at Daytona 500 Media Day. “And I had to sit in the front seat with him and Chase was sleeping in the back. And so you make conversation.”

Despite the lack of Miss May I coming through the speakers, Blaney treasured the chat, citing his strong relationship with the elder Elliott.

“Bill’s been great to me, Bill’s a great guy,” Blaney said. “Being able to talk to someone like that, who I have so much respect for, was really special to me.”

Posted on February 13, 2019February 13, 2019 by Reid Spencer

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Ryan Preece has added his name to a very short list.

The number of modified champions who have ventured into NASCAR’s premier series and enjoyed even a modicum of success can be expressed in single digits.

Jimmy Spencer won two races in what is now the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, a feat later equaled by Steve Park. Mike McLaughlin won six times in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and Jeff Fuller claimed one victory in that series, but neither ascended to full-time Cup rides.

So the odds are long against Preece, the 2013 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion who is running for Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors in the Cup series this year.

Then again, the odds against Preece have always been long, and the 28-year-old from Berlin, Conn., has shown a willingness to gamble for the highest possible stakes—his own future.

It’s an oft-told story. In 2017, Preece took all the money he could scrape together and bought two races in a top-of-the-line Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. He finished second in his first outing at New Hampshire. In his second start in JGR equipment, he won at Iowa.

Those performances were the springboard that first earned him additional rides in the Xfinity Series and ultimately propelled him to his current Cup deal with JTG Daugherty Racing.

Now all Preece has to do is change the narrative established by his modified predecessors.

“The gamble paid off,” Preece said. “I’m not saying it would for everybody. I didn’t know if it would. My phone wasn’t blowing off the hook at first. I want people to know that. It could be a life-changing gamble either way.”

Even though Preece has landed at JTG Daugherty, he is maintaining a strong connection to his modified roots. On Tuesday night, he won a 35-lap modified feature at New Smyrna Speedway, just down the road from Daytona Beach. And he has sought counsel from Park, who in 2000 took the checkered flag at Watkins Glen, won two poles and posted 13 top 10s in his best Cup season.

Park’s best piece of advice to the rookie?

“There’s a lot of stuff I could say, but I don’t think I could say it right here,” Preece said on Wednesday’s media day to preview the Daytona 500 (Sunday, 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX). “I would say, ‘Don’t hold back. Don’t just drive the car. Don’t just drive through what it’s doing. Constantly tell them very in detail what the car’s doing, because they’re not going to make it better if you don’t.’

“Coming from modifieds, if it was close, it was like, ‘Hey, guys, it’s good. Don’t worry about it. I’ll wheel it.’ That gets you pretty far, but that’s not going to win you races — not at this level.”

Preece is replacing AJ Allmendinger in the No. 47 Chevrolet this year. Allmendinger’s best performance on an intermediate speedway last year came in the Monster Energy All-Star Race at Charlotte, where NASCAR introduced a higher-downforce, lower-horsepower competition package for that event only.

The 2019 rules package incorporates the principles that produced close racing at Charlotte. That’s a source of optimism for Preece. So is the recent organizational test at Las Vegas.

“Single-car speed really won’t mean much, but if you have single-car speed, you just need to translate it to the draft,” Preece said. “That was something we had, and now we just need to fine-tune and be meticulous about getting it to go from that single-car to the draft.”