● Ryan Preece and the No. 41 United Rentals Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart-Haas Racing are headed to the Commonwealth of Virginia for an old-fashioned short track battle during Sunday night’s Richmond 400. It will be Preece’s 158th career start in the NASCAR Cup Series and his eighth at the .75-mile oval. Preece earned his best result at the track in the series’ prior visit last July when he finished fifth.
● With Richmond’s worn-out asphalt and low-banked, 14-degree turns, the track echoes characteristics of the Northeast venues where Preece honed his skills on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. Preece underscored those parallels during a Modified Tour event at Richmond in 2021 when the Berlin, Connecticut-native scored a dominating victory. It was the 25th of his 26 career wins on the Modified Tour.
● Last Sunday at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) in Austin Texas, Preece rallied to a 23rd-place finish after late contact in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix. Preece was forced to start at the rear of the 39-car field due to a change of valve springs after qualifying, but crew chief Chad Johnston orchestrated a strategy that propelled Preece to a fifth-place finish at the end of the second stage to earn him six valuable bonus points.
● Preece has competed in four NASCAR Xfinity Series races at Richmond with his best result coming in his most recent Xfinity Series start at the track –16th in April 2022.
● Joining Preece this weekend at Richmond is United Rentals, Inc. (NYSE: URI), the largest equipment rental company in the world. 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.
Ryan Preece, Driver of the No. 41 United Rentals Ford Mustang Dark Horse
You earned a top-five finish in your most recent NASCAR Cup Series start at Richmond last July. You’ve also been victorious there in a Modified. What is it like to race at Richmond?
“Richmond is a large short track, but it’s still a short track. The track surface is worn out, so tire heat and falloff is a real thing at Richmond. Turns one and two, and turns three and four are completely different corners, so being disciplined in hitting your marks and having a car with good balance is important at Richmond. If you’re fighting a car that’s too tight or too loose, the issue will only be exaggerated the longer the run goes.”
Is it important to have a car that handles well in traffic at Richmond?
“I think it’s important to have a versatile car that you can move around and take to places on the track where others can’t. It’s definitely important to have a good-driving car in traffic, but it’s also extremely important to have a car that’s able to go where others can’t.”
Will there be a noticeable change on-track with the race taking place under the lights on Sunday night?
“I think Richmond is very sensitive to tire heat, so I’m not sure if you will necessarily experience as much of a balance change or encounter some of the issues that we normally would during the day. However, as the track cools off, you will probably see cars begin to turn better, but on the flip side, they could potentially become looser. It will be important to stay ahead of the track on adjustments.”
What are your thoughts on tire wear at Richmond? Could we see something like what we saw at Bristol?
“I think Bristol has always been a place where we have never expected tire wear, so if we had that amount of tire wear there, and now we’re going to Richmond where tire wear is always a big part of the racing, yes, I think we could potentially see something similar to Bristol. At that point, I think it just comes down to setting up your racecar differently, driving it differently, the whole thing. How you attack the race will be different. Going into Richmond, I don’t know what to expect. Last year, our car drove well the entire race and didn’t fall off that badly, but this year it could be about tire conservation and having a car that drives really well on lap 30 and not lap five, as in the past.”
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