Two laps to settle a playoff spot
Ryan Preece had one route into the Chase playoffs on Saturday night at Daytona. Win the race. Nothing else counted.
He got it in overtime, and he got it under caution. Preece and Zane Smith lined up on the front row for the two-lap shootout, and Smith’s No. 38 Ford led at the white flag. Then Smith tried to block Tyler Reddick, spun, and the yellow came out with Preece’s No. 60 in front. Race over. A first Cup Series win in 249 career starts for the 35-year-old from Connecticut, who led five laps all night.
“I’m speechless, but those guys in the 60 group are fighters, and when you put our back to wall, we swing hard,” Preece said. “Two years ago, a lot of keyboard warriors were saying I was nothing, but we kicked their butts tonight.”
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Sixteen points, and van Gisbergen is out
The 25-point winner’s bonus was the whole point. Preece rolled off in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 sitting 17th in the standings, 31 points behind Shane van Gisbergen for the final playoff berth. The New Zealander finished 27th. Preece took the 16th and last Chase spot by 16 points.
“Obviously, you want to be in that Chase and (we) didn’t make it,” van Gisbergen said.
Daniel Suarez, Reddick, Michael McDowell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. completed the top five. Smith, who had led with a lap and a half to run, was classified 32nd after the race went six laps past its scheduled 160-lap distance.
A messy night for everyone else
Polesitter Ross Chastain led the 40-car field to green for the first race run with the new aerodynamic package. Van Gisbergen won Stage 1, which ended with Chris Buescher crashing on the run to the line in an incident that also collected Kyle Larson and Preece, Buescher’s RFK Racing teammate. Ryan Blaney took Stage 2 ahead of Preece and Smith after Team Penske moved its Fords forward in the closing laps.
Hendrick Motorsports had William Byron, Chase Elliott and Larson running 1-2-3 with 20 laps left, then pitted them with 18 to go and gave up the track position. Carson Hocevar spun by himself with five laps remaining and wrecked Erik Jones at the east end of the speedway, which forced the overtime.
Ford has now won four consecutive summer races at Daytona going back to 2023. Tom Cruise spent the evening at the speedway announcing a sequel to “Days of Thunder.” Preece handled the ending.
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