● After showing speed in all three of his previous NASCAR Cup Series outings with Stewart-Haas Racing at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, it’s understandable why Ryan Preece has had Sunday’s Xfinity 500 circled on his calendar since the series last visited the .526-mile oval in April. The three-pack of promising Martinsville runs began with his first for Stewart-Haas in April 2023 when he qualified on the pole and led the opening 135 laps of the race before suffering a pit-road speeding penalty that ultimately left him 15th. Preece returned last October to qualify a solid ninth, but saw strategy work against him en route to a 20th-place finish. His streak of Martinsville top-10 qualifying efforts ended earlier this year when he earned just the 22nd spot on the starting grid, but a smooth and steady drive in that April race resulted in a ninth-place finish, the best of his Cup Series career on the paperclip-shaped track.
● Sunday’s 500-lap race will mark Preece’s 11th career NASCAR Cup Series start at Martinsville. The driver of the No. 41 Mohawk Northeast Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart-Haas made his first Martinsville start in November 2015 for owner Mike Curb. The next six came with JTG-Daugherty Racing from 2019 through 2021, with the best of those being a 16th-place finish in March 2019.
● Prior to his first NASCAR Cup Series start at Martinsville in November 2015, Preece tasted victory twice in seven Martinsville starts on the Whelen Modified Tour, the only open-wheel series sanctioned by NASCAR. It’s where Preece has honed his short-track skills, debuting on the Tour in 2007, finishing runner-up in the championship four times (2009, 2012, 2014 and 2015), and earning the 2013 title. Preece’s lone Tour start in 2023 came in the October race at Martinsville, which he started on the pole and drove in dominant fashion to his 26th career Tour victory and second at the track after leading a race-high 134 of 200 laps. His first Martinsville win came in his second Tour start there in September 2008, when he started fourth and led a race-high 265 of 300 laps en route to a 1.7-second margin of victory. Preece returned to Martinsville in September 2009 to qualify eighth and finish third, and he added a pole qualifying effort April 2021. He’s led a total of 557 laps in his Tour career at Martinsville.
● Mohawk Northeast adorns Preece’s No. 41 Ford Mustang Dark Horse at Martinsville for the fourth and final time this season. A longtime supporter of Preece, Mohawk is one of the premier heavy-civil contractors in the Northeast. The corporation has been providing the highest-quality construction services to a wide variety of clients. Specializing in heavy highway, railroad, movable and fixed bridges and marine construction, Mohawk has completed countless projects safely, on time and within budget. Mohawk can self-perform all phases of construction, including electrical, mechanical, structural steel repair and erection, deep foundations, pier and bulkheads, fabrication and coating (AISC & SSPC Certified) and a wide range of marine services. With an extensive fleet of cranes, barges, offshore tugboats and many other pieces of heavy equipment, Mohawk is a well-established leader in heavy civil construction. Clients include the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, USACE, General Dynamics – Electric Boat, Connecticut DOT, Massachusetts DOT, New York DOT, Metro North Railroad, Amtrak, and various private sector clients. Mohawk Northeast appeared previously this season on Preece’s No. 41 Ford Mustang Dark Horse June 23 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, Aug. 11 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway and Sept. 14 at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International.
Ryan Preece, Driver of the No. 41 Mohawk Northeast Ford Mustang Dark Horse
You’ve shown good speed at Martinsville in your three previous starts there with Stewart-Haas the past two seasons – qualifying on the pole and leading 135 laps in April 2023, qualifying ninth last October, and then driving from 22nd to a ninth-place finish this past April. How much of that would you attribute to your previous outings on the track with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour?
“I think the background in short-track racing just gives you a pretty good understanding of what you need when it comes to racing on a track like Martinsville. So for me, I feel pretty confident going into Martinsville and have a good idea of what to look for and, hopefully, we can put together a complete race weekend and improve on the good runs we’ve had there together. We’ve had really fast cars there with Stewart-Haas, just need to put together that complete race. A speeding penalty killed our momentum and cost us quite a bit of track position in the spring race last year. This past April, we had a good car in the race, but just needed to qualify a whole lot better. But, overall, our short-track program has trended in the right direction since I’ve been here.”
You’ve earned two Martinsville clocks – the first coming in 2008 and the second last year – and both came via the Modified Tour. Do you feel the Martinsville clock is one of the more coveted trophies in racing?
“I mean, it’s definitely one – yeah, absolutely. It seems like every track has kind of tried to elevate their game when it comes to trophies. I feel like it just gives that race that much more significance. But the Martinsville clock has been around for so long. I don’t know how long they’ve been doing it but, to be honest, there’s nostalgia that goes along with it. I just wound my clock up last night. Most trophies I have are lined up on a shelf or in a trophy case. That one, it’s a constant reminder – when you’re winding it up, you remember that day.”
Where do you keep your clocks? And do you have them set to chime?
“One clock is (at my home) in North Carolina, the one I won last year, but the other clock is up in Connecticut at my father’s house. They’re definitely ones that I love.”
The Modified Tour races at a lot of iconic venues, and it’s a series where racers have specific tracks circled because it’s a big deal. For a New Englander like yourself, tracks like New Hampshire and Thompson come to mind. But Martinsville is the one stop where New Englanders always got to show off the awesomeness of the Modified Tour to NASCAR country. So, does winning at Martinsville take on added significance, and are those grandfather clocks maybe more appreciated just because of Martinsville’s history on the Modified Tour, which has been racing there since the 1960s?
“So, going back in history, Modifieds are mainly north of the Mason Dixon (Line) type of type of racing, right? But then it used to be the NASCAR Winston Series, or whatever it was, it was their national points series, and that’s what guys like Richie Evans, Geoff Bodine and so on and so forth, that’s what they raced for. And they never came down South to race against guys like Jerry Cook, who stayed in the Southeast, and those guys stayed in the Northeast. So that was like the meeting ground for the Northeast – New Englanders or whatnot – Modified racers from up in the Northeast to come and battle against the Southeast with guys like Richie Evans, many of them, coming down. And when you’d win that race, you’d be taking that piece with you, that was like our victory flag. So, fast-forwarding 30, 40 years, it’s still that same way. It was always the ‘Dirty South’ versus the ‘Nasty North’ and we’d be going up against guys like Tim Brown or Bert Myers back when I was 17, 18 years old and still trying to beat those guys. So, yeah, it is a constant reminder that the North is still really fast.”
What’s the key to having speed and racing competitively at Martinsville?
“When we have the right setup, the speed is there. We’ve shown that during the last few races there. There are things that have changed over that time, but it’s still the same track, so we just need to make sure that our group continues to move in the direction we’ve been headed. Looking back over the past couple of years, Stewart-Haas as a whole has definitely had speed at Martinsville. It’s been really nice to see some of the capabilities that we’ve had at the short tracks in general, so we’re looking forward to it. The biggest thing to emphasize is the field has been closer than it’s ever been, so it’s not easy to pass in general. If you have a car that is maneuverable and can go where other drivers aren’t, you can find a way to pass. Outside of that, it’s going to be about strategy and track position.”
● Event: Xfinity 500 (Round 35 of 36)
● Time/Date: 2 p.m. EST on Sunday, Nov. 3
● Location: Martinsville (Va.) Speedway
● Layout: .526-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 500 laps/263 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 130 laps / Stage 2: 130 laps / Final Stage: 240 laps
● TV/Radio: NBC / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
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