Ryan Preece had a full plate on his shoulders at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Friday and Saturday. The young driver competed in Friday’s NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour All-Star Race and Saturday’s NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and NASCAR XFINITY Series events at the 1.058-mile oval.
Preece is a rising star from Berlin, Connecticut, and currently competes full-time in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. Despite racing modifieds, Preece made numerous XFINITY Series starts, including a full-time season in 2016 under the JD Motorsports banner. This season, Preece will be running in only two XFINITY Series races, both for Joe Gibbs Racing.
This weekend the young driver shined in all three races he competed in. After starting 19th in Friday’s All-Star race, Preece passed Ryan Newman for the lead on the final lap to win the event. A day later, after starting on the pole, Preece took home a runner-up finish before jumping into his No. 20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. The driver from Connecticut led 54 laps in the Eastern Propane & Oil 100.
Preece continued the strong run over in the NASCAR XFINITY Series. He started sixth in his No. 20 MoHawk Northwest Incorporated Toyota and took home a second-place result in his first XFINITY Series race of the season. The runner-up result marked his best finish in the series through 37 starts.
The driver finished stage one sitting second behind Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series star Kyle Larson. In stage two, Preece sat a couple of spots further back in fourth. He later found himself running upfront late in the race to finish second behind teammate Kyle Busch.
The next time out with Joe Gibbs Racing for Preece will be on July 29 at Iowa Speedway. The 0.875-mile oval 30-miles east of Des Moines, Iowa, weren’t too kind to Preece last season. Both trips there resulted in mid-30th finishes due to a crash.
Through six starts in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour in 2017, as he did not race at Langley in May, Preece holds two victories, five top five and five top 10 finishes. The standout driver in the series currently sits sixth in points as the series heads to Stafford Motor Speedway on August 4.
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
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