● Short-Track Sunday: Ryan Preece and the No. 41 United Rentals Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) head back to Richmond (Va.) Raceway this weekend for the second time this season. The NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out 400 will take place at the .75-mile oval on Sunday at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
● By The Numbers: Sunday’s race will mark Preece’s seventh Cup Series start at Richmond. He has a best finish there of 18th, which came this past April, when he started 33rd and battled his way to the top-20 finish. He has also made four career Xfinity Series starts at the Virginia track, his best outing coming in April 2022, when he started sixth and finished 16th in the No. 5 BJ McLeod Motorsprots Ford. In his lone NASCAR K&N Pro Series East start at Richmond in September 2015, Preece started 35th in the No. 41 entry for owner Doug Fuller and raced his way to a 14th-place finish. In his lone NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour start at Richmond in September 2021, Preece started third and won the race for Ed Partridge in the No. 6 entry, leading a race-high 98 of 156 laps.
● Welcome Back, United Rentals: This weekend United Rentals, Inc. (NYSE: URI), the largest equipment rental company in the world, returns to the No. 41 Ford Mustang serving as the primary sponsor. United Rentals has an integrated network of 1,449 rental locations in North America, 13 in Europe, 27 in Australia and 19 in New Zealand. In North America, the company operates in 49 states and every Canadian province. The company’s approximately 24,700 employees serve construction and industrial customers, utilities, municipalities, homeowners and others. The company offers approximately 4,700 classes of equipment for rent with a total original cost of $19.3 billion. United Rentals is a member of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, the Barron’s 400 Index and the Russell 3000 Index®. The company is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. Additional information about United Rentals is available at UnitedRentals.com.
● Turns for Troops: Making every lap a lap of honor. Join United Rentals in supporting military veterans and families. Through the Turns for Troops program, United Rentals will donate $50 for each lap that one of their three sponsored drivers complete for specific races throughout the season. Funds from the Turns for Troops program go to SoldierStrong or Operation Homefront. Click here to learn more.
● Looking Back: Last weekend on the 2.5-mile “Tricky Triangle” at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, Preece qualified his No. 41 Ford Mustang 34th on Saturday but came out strong for Sunday’s race, finishing Stage 1 in 14th-place. He and the No. 41 team worked hard on pit strategy and, although his Ford Mustang was one the looser side, Preece was pretty happy with his racecar. But an incident on the final lap of the 160-lap race left him stuck on the racetrack and he was credited with a 31st-place result.
● ARCA Menards Series West Win: In June, competitors took on Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway for the season’s second road-course race. Preece kicked off the weekend on the West Coast with a victory in the ARCA Menards Series West race on Friday afternoon. He qualified his No. 9 Bonanza Ford on the pole. From there, he dominated the race by leading 55 of 64 laps and crossed the finish line 9.675 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Sammy Smith.
● Movin’ On Up: The No. 41 SHR Ford Mustang team has showed streaks of improvement and consistency at various points this season. Preece had a career weekend at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway in April, earning his first Cup Series pole and leading a career-high 135 laps. In 21 points-paying events this season, Preece has six top-15 finishes – March 12 at Phoenix Raceway, April 16 at Marinsville (Va.) Speedway, May 14 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, May 29 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, June 11 at Sonoma and July 2 at the Chicago Street Course.
● Where He Stands: Preece heads to Richmond 27th in the driver standings with 341 points.
● Starting Things Off: Preece kicked off the 2023 season with a strong showing in the non-points Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, leading a race-high 43 laps but ultimately finishing seventh after a fuel pump issue. He has a best points-paying finish of 12th this season, which came at Phoenix Raceway in March.
Richmond is a place where you’ve had success in other series and that you seem confident at. Does this weekend feel like a good opportunity for you and the No. 41?
“Absolutely. Richmond is another one of the tracks that I have circled on my calendar. It’s a track that I enjoy and that fits my driving style really well. With my short-track background, it’s one that I feel confident heading to. My team and I have really been emphasizing on the last few races and this one as our best opportunity to win. It’s unfortunate that I’ve been taken out because of other people’s mistakes these last few weeks. But I’m ready to move on and get to Richmond. I always say that the clock resets at midnight and this week is no different. We’ve been working hard on our program and I anticipate a strong showing for us.”
From a driver perspective, what are the challenges of racing at Richmond?
“Richmond is a challenging racetrack when it comes to managing your tires throughout the run. Those first few laps on fresh tries are great because you’re fliyng through the field, but after those first 20 to 30 laps, the fall-off makes the car harder and harder to manage. So, it’s really about being smart and managing that so you can stay consistent throughout the run. I feel like I understand those challenges and hopefully we can really emphasize on that this weekend.”
Do you enjoy racing at Richmond?
“I do. I’m a short-track racer, so that’s a really big part of it. It definitely doesn’t drive like a lot of other short tracks but, if you can compare it, it’s more like Phoenix. We had our best finish of the season at Phoenix earlier this season, too, so that’s in the back of my head. The corners aren’t as tight at Richmond and the track is so unique. Our team needs to unload and be fast right away so we can qualify up front and stay there. Track position is always the name of the game and we’ve had to fight for track position these last few weeks because we didn’t qualify as well as we hoped. I’m hoping this weekend is different and we can be up front to start things off.”
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