● Ryan Preece and the No. 41 Bonanza Cabernet Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart-Haas Racing head to South Florida for the NASCAR Cup Series’ annual visit to the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway oval. Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 400 will be the sixth Cup Series start at Homestead for the native of Berlin, Connecticut, who’ll be celebrating his 34th birthday Friday. Best of his previous five outings was last October’s 13th-place finish from the 29th starting position.
● Outside the NASCAR Cup Series, Preece has posted multiple strong runs at Homestead in limited NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series action. Best of his four Xfinity Series outings were his most recent two – back-to-back season finales driving Joe Gibbs Racing equipment in November 2017 and 2018. He started and finished fifth in the 2017 race, then came back the following year to finish sixth from the 12th starting position. Preece qualified on the pole for his lone Homestead Truck Series start with David Gilliland Racing in October 2022, but had to start from the back after unapproved adjustments before the race. Still, he battled to the front, led a pair of laps by the race’s midpoint, and rallied for a fourth-place finish.
● Joining Preece at Homestead and for the second weekend in a row is Bonanza, a California Cabernet Sauvignon created by Chuck Wagner of Caymus Vineyards. The wine’s name is inspired by the “bonanza” of the great state of California, where diverse vineyard land that produces delicious Cabernet can be found. Preece got to enjoy the fruits of his labor quite literally in June 2023 at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway. Preece competed in the ARCA Menards Series West race and dominated from start to finish. He won the pole and led twice for a race-high 50 laps, including the final 32 tours around the 1.99-mile, 10-turn road course to take the victory by a commanding 9.675 seconds over runner-up Sammy Smith. It was Preece’s first ARCA victory and the first ARCA win for Stewart-Haas. From his race-winning chalice in victory lane, Preece sipped on Bonanza, soaking in the moment amid TV interviews and photographs.
● Chuck Wagner and his late parents, Lorna and Charlie Sr., opened Caymus Vineyards in 1972, starting off with 240 cases of Cabernet Sauvignon. Based at its original “home ranch” in Rutherford, California – deep in the heart of Napa Valley Wine Country – Caymus Vineyards remains a hands-on family affair. In addition to their celebrated Cabernet Sauvignons, Chuck and two of his children – Charlie and Jenny – produce diverse wines from Napa Valley, other parts of California and beyond. Said Preece about partnering with Caymus Vineyards and its Bonanza brand: “Representing Caymus Vineyards and Bonanza at Sonoma allowed me to see just how hands-on the Wagner family is when it comes to their winemaking. It’s impressive, and it’s something I can really appreciate. I’m hands-on with my racecars because I want them to be the very best. They have the same mindset at Caymus. That’s why they’re a great partner for our race team.”
● Riding along with Preece this weekend at Homestead as part of the 50th anniversary of the Ronald McDonald House Charities is the Bucci Family. Their 15-year-old daughter, Olivia, came down with meningitis earlier this year and spent 85 days in the hospital. Her parents were able to stay at the Ronald McDonald House of Connecticut. The family chose to be represented on Precce’s No. 41 Bonanza Cabernet Ford Mustang Dark Horse as Preece is also a Connecticut native, hailing from Berlin.
Ryan Preece, Driver of the No. 41 Bonanza Cabernet Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Is there a track on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule that emulates some of the characteristics of Homestead? If so, do you have an indication of how you’ll perform this weekend?
“I feel based off of Kansas and Vegas, we’ve had a really good car at tracks where typically you aren’t wide open at, and that makes me feel pretty confident, I would say, for us to have a good run at Homestead. So I think we’ve gotten our mile-and-a-half package for our car to be pretty solid in the race. And now if we could just figure out qualifying speeds so we could have some speed there, it would certainly help us.”
Drivers seem to universally praise Homestead. Do you feel the same way when it comes to racing there? And what are you able to do with a car at Homestead that you can’t do elsewhere?
“I think it’s just because you have different options. You have options to kind of move around and make speed. As a racecar driver, that’s all you really want is the ability to go where somebody else is and not feel like you have a one-lane racetrack. So Homestead just opens up a lot a lot of options to be able to run all the way against the fence or maybe even run the bottom, which I think will provide some good racing. The surface of the track is really worn, so you have to run that wall as best you can because that will be the sweet spot. The tire wear will be pretty substantial, so our team will focus on the tire strategy and taking care of our stuff. As always, we’ll want to qualify well so we can be upfront with track position just being everything.”
Your best of five NASCAR Cup Series finishes at Homestead was 13th last year. Best of your four Xfinity Series finishes was fifth and sixth for JGR in 2017 and 2018. Your lone Truck Series outing was a fourth-place finish from the pole in 2022. Success at Homestead in the NASCAR Cup Series seems to be more difficult to obtain. What makes success at the Cup level there so much more difficult, and why does prior success at a venue in another series not always translate to Cup?
“I think there are a lot of things that play into that. And I think this this NextGen car kind of levels the playing field. So, going into Homestead this year, I feel like we have a better mile-and-a half program – for us, anyway – and I feel like we can better that.”
● Event: Straight Talk Wireless 400 (Round 34 of 36)
● Time/Date: 2:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Oct. 27
● Location: Homestead-Miami Speedway
● Layout: 1.5-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 267 laps/400.5 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 80 laps / Stage 2: 85 laps / Final Stage: 102 laps
● TV/Radio: NBC / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
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