Preece embraces New England roots in pursuit of final Chase spot

LOUDON, N.H. — Amid the attention and pressure of racing for NASCAR Cup Series title stakes this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Ryan Preece is hanging loose with his hometown crowd. The Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing driver is on the bubble for making the field of 16 drivers who will compete in the Chase, the 10-race championship run that closes the season. With two races remaining in the regular season, Preece is ranked 50 points behind Shane van Gisbergen for the final spot in the Chase.

“We need a home run,” Preece said. “That’s the plan.”

But he scoffs at the idea of walling off the outside world to focus solely on his No. 60 Ford. Preece instead has embraced the frenzy of racing around his roots as a rallying point for his last-ditch charge at the Chase.

The Berlin, Connecticut, native has spent the week in New England competing with his family-owned team at minor league races across the region, including Saturday’s Modified Series race at New Hampshire. Ryan Preece Motorsports has a crew full of locals with nicknames like “John the Plumber” who have been helping the driver since he was a teenager.

“We have nicknames for each and every one of them,” said Preece, 35. “It’s an opportunity to race with guys that I’ve known forever. They just enjoy racing and having some fun. I live for getting behind the wheel of a race car, not sitting in a room analyzing what people are going to do. Because if you race enough, you can predict what people are going to do. So I think it’s important to race more. I don’t think it’s a distraction.”

A critical opportunity at the Magic Mile

New Hampshire’s flat 1.058-mile oval is a critical opportunity for Preece, who finished 17th at Richmond Raceway last week and fell 21 points further behind 16th in the Chase standings. Ford drivers have been dominant recently at New Hampshire, leading 275 of 301 laps last year while taking three of the top four spots.

Preece has 40 NASCAR starts at the track known as “The Magic Mile,” compared with two for van Gisbergen, who has only a few seasons of oval experience after a career racing on road and street courses before entering NASCAR. Preece’s career highlight at New Hampshire came in 2021, when he won a Modified Series race there with a last-lap pass.

The track also has a distinctive trophy tradition: Ryan Blaney, the winner last September, will receive a 20-pound lobster mounted on a plaque. Joey Logano said he started the “Loudon the Lobster” tradition in 2009 when he scored the first of his 39 Cup victories.

Other contenders and trends

Christopher Bell has won two of the past four Cup races at New Hampshire. Bell said his team felt more refreshed this season, which included a second off week in midsummer, and that Easter weekend was the only break in the 2025 schedule.

Oddsmakers have Blaney (+425) as the favorite for Sunday’s race, followed by Logano (+475) and Bell (+475).

Hendrick Motorsports, one of the sport’s powerhouse teams, has not won at New Hampshire since Kasey Kahne in July 2012; since then the team has collected 118 victories across 28 tracks.