Five weeks ago, Ryan Preece dramatically soared through the air during the Daytona 500, marking a scary start to his time with RFK Racing. Fast forward to Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and Preece achieved his best career finish, taking third place after a tough race in Sin City.
Preece began the race in 12th place but quickly fell to 20th in the early laps. Once he got stuck in the middle of the pack, he struggled to move forward for a while. Although his car didn’t feel right at the start, Preece and his crew chief, Derrick Finley, finally found a solution late in Stage 2, allowing his No. 60 Ford Mustang Dark Horse to perform well.
“Yeah, at the start of the race, it felt like no matter which lane I chose, it didn’t work out for me,” Preece said. “Then at the end of Stage 2, during the last restart, I went from 20th to 11th, and after that, we held our position. This Consumer Cellular No. 60 was strong, and I’m really proud of the team.”
Preece’s third-place finish at Las Vegas matched his previous best result in the NASCAR Cup Series, which he achieved in the 2019 Spring race at Talladega Superspeedway. While his car performed well in the final laps, he believed he needed just a bit more speed to compete for the win against Josh Berry, who finished first, and Daniel Suarez, who came in second.
