By Reid Spencer – NASCAR Wire Service
Ryan Preece storms to his first career NASCAR Cup Series Chase victory in Sunday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
DAYTONA BEACH, FL. – Low on fuel lately but not lacking in grit, Ryan Preece won Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway in overtime to advance to the NASCAR Cup Series Chase.
Ryan Preece Storms into the Chase
“I’m just speechless right now,” said Preece, who finished last in the Chase by 17 points from Shane van Gisbergen. The three-time Australian Supercar champion held a 31-point lead over Preece entering the regular season finale.
“But those guys, that group of 60, we’re warriors,” Preece continued. “When you put our backs against the wall, we rock hard… There were a lot of keyboard warriors last year saying I’m nothing. Well, we just kicked their ass tonight.”
Winning his first Cup Series points race, Preece recovered from a three-car crash late in the first round that damaged his left front wing, but after repairs he was able to power his No. 60 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford to the front.
Stretching on fuel during the final 65-lap stage, Preece overtook lead Tyler Reddick and Zane Smith for a few minutes before Smith spun into the outside wall, sparking a series of collisions that forced NASCAR to call the fourth yellow of the evening with Preece ahead of the caution.
“That’s a testament to how built these race cars are, man. I’m a racer. I know what it takes to build speed. So to every man and woman at RFK, thank you for providing me with a rocket ship so I can go to the moon tonight. This is redemption.”
Hocevar loses control, setting up a chaotic overtime finish
In a race that went six laps longer than the scheduled 160 lap distance, Preece led three times for a total of five laps. After avoiding a pit stop in the closing stages, he was running second when Carson Hotsavar made an aggressive move to the inside entering turn three, causing a lap 155 wreck that forced overtime.
The driver steered his Spire Motorsports Chevrolet into the bottom lane, but the car’s rear end exploded, pushing the No. 77 Camaro into the outside wall. Eric Jones’ Toyota crashed violently into the Racer’s car along the outside wall as Ty Gibbs’ Camry flipped on the track.
“Yeah, I always trailed people pretty tight, it seemed,” said Hotcevar, who picked up his first win at Talladega in April. “And so I changed from top to bottom right there, and that was the first time I really split a ton of air through my nose into three, and I just lost it. It just kept going. I was the wheel straight, man.
“It just kept getting all the air and something in the nose. I’m shocked it did. Of course, it caught me off guard. It was nice to go all day as planned and then we gave ourselves a shot to win it at the end.
The driver’s mishap set up an overtime restart with Smith leading the way. After pushing Smith on the white flag lap, Reddick moved to the outside, but he and Smith tangled on the final lap to start a race-ending duel on the backstretch.
Daniel Suarez avoided the chaos to finish second, followed by Reddick, Michael McDowell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Austin Cindric returned to sixth and finished 15th in the Chase by 9 points from Preece, who will begin the postseason as the No. 16 Series.
“We were so close, finishing second two years in a row,” Suarez said of his run in the No. 7 Spire Chevrolet. “I am very happy and proud to enter the Chase with this team. This team deserves it.
“I feel like I’ve had runs in the postseason in the past where I didn’t think we were strong enough to really contend. But this team deserves to be in the Chase. We are Team Chase. There are so many people and partners that have helped us get here and put together a performance like this.”
Austin Dillon, Alex Bowman, Josh Berry and Cole Custer completed the top ten. Berry scored his fifth straight top-ten finish in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford.
The Chasers:
Bubba Wallace finished 20th after finishing 14th in the Chase after finishing seventh in the first round.
Van Gisbergen took the lead in Stage 1 as Preece, RFK teammate Chris Buescher and Kyle Larson spun into the infield grass near the finish line to end the stage.
Late in the race, however, van Gisbergen pitted for fuel on lap 157 and opted for four new tyres. That put him 27th for the overtime restart, and from that position he was unable to avoid a multicar wreck on the final lap. The New Zealander finished 28th and dropped out of the Chase.
Denny Hamlin took the lead in the Chase by 25 points last Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He will start the Chase with 2100 points. Despite crashing in the final lap and finishing 33rd, Ryan Blaney took the Stage 2 win and finished second to start the Chase with 2,075 points.
The remaining seeds are, in order: Redick, Gibbs, Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell, Larson, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Buescher, Suarez, Hotsavar, William Byron, Wallace, Cindric and Preece.
Next
The Chase begins on Sunday, September 6 with the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. The race begins at 5pm ET in the US on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe is the defending winner.
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