● Ryan Preece heads to Richmond Raceway this weekend for the sixth time of his NASCAR Cup Series career. He has a best finish of 20th (twice, 2019 and 2020) and a best start of 16th. Preece has also made four career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Richmond. Last season, he ran for BJ McLeod Motorsports in the No. 5 Ford, started sixth and finished 16th, his best Xfinity finish at the track. He also made one ARCA Menards Series East start in 2015 in the No. 41 for Doug Fuller. Preece started last of 35 cars and raced his way to a 14th-place finish.
● In one NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour start at Richmond Raceway in 2021, Preece started third and won the 156-lap race, leading 98 laps total. Preece ran the race for Ed Partridge in the No. 6 and dominated the entire evening.
● Six races into the 2023 season, Preece is 29th in the driver standings with 69 points.
● The Cup Series went left and right last weekend at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas for the first road course race of the season. It marked the series’ third visit to COTA, the 3.426-mile, 20-turn road course. Preece made his second start at the Texas course on Sunday, starting 26th and finishing 36th in the No. 41 Ford Mustang. Preece rallied to a 10th-place finish in stage one but the end of the race was tough as he got caught up in a wreck in the final laps.
● The 2023 West Coast swing wrapped up a few weeks ago at Phoenix Raceway and the series returned to the Southeast at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where Preece raced for the fifth time in his Cup Series career. He was credited with a 28th-place finish at Atlanta. Prior to Atlanta, the series wrapped up the 2023 West Coast Swing at Phoenix Raceway, where Preece ended with a 12th-place finish, his best points-paying finish of the season.
● Preece was a victim of circumstances in the second event of the season at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, getting caught up in a multicar accident on a lap-88 restart and ultimately finishing 33rd. The following weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Preece battled a tight racecar all day and was credited with a 23rd-place finish.
● Preece opened the 2023 season with a strong showing in the 65th running of the Daytona 500. He and the No. 41 Ford Mustang qualified 20th and logged the best 10-consecutive-lap average in final practice. On race day, Preece finished second in Stage 1 before getting caught up in a multicar accident on lap 181. He was unable to return to the race and finished 36th.
● United Rentals, Inc. (NYSE: URI), the largest equipment rental company in the world, is serving as the primary sponsor of Ryan Preece and the No. 41 team of Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) for select NASCAR Cup Series races in 2023. The partnership began with the non-points Busch Light Clash at The Coliseum, Feb. 4-5 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. 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.
You’ve had success at Richmond Raceway in the past and won the modified race at the track in 2021, what’s it like to race at Richmond?
“Ever since we switched over to the NextGen Cup car, there are a lot of things that I’m starting to learn translate from what I used to race to what it is now. There’s a lot of things that are similar to the modifieds and a lot of things you’ve got to look for and be mindful of when it comes to that track. It’s one of those tracks that will sort of tempt you to be looking for maybe a little bit better turn or you can want a certain amount of forward drive and then you hurt other areas. It’s a really delicate balance of what you need in order to be fast there.”
With your short-track background, are you looking forward to this weekend’s race?
“I am really looking forward to Richmond this weekend, we’ve got this one circled for sure. I feel like after Phoenix, Richmond has turned into something that I’m really looking forward to. Phoenix was a good race for our team and we got our best finish of the season. We learned a lot that weekend after practice and qualifying. We didn’t show what we had in practice and qualifying but when it came time for the race, we really showed what we had. We were fast and our car was strong. My team and I were able to take notes from that race and I think we’ll be able to capitalize on what we learned there and the success we had and really put it all together at Richmond.
What is your team the most focused on now that we’re six races into the season?
“We have to be on offense now. I’ve been saying that for weeks now but it’s even more true now than ever. We have not gotten the finishes that we need and despite how we’re getting there, we’ve got to change the narrative. Our main goal is consistency now. We need to unload fast, qualify well and stay out of trouble to salvage good finishes. Our team needs good finishes.”
We had our first road-course race of the season at COTA last weekend, how did that go?
“I was really looking forward to COTA because I’m not a road-course racer and I don’t have a ton of road course experience but we worked really hard on that program leading up to the race. Road courses are all about strategy and if it works out in your favor or not. I felt like we had a good strategy and my crew chief Chad worked hard on what he thought would put us in the best position at the end. But we got a penalty and then toward the end of the race, the strategy did end up working in our favor when a caution came out and we were up there toward the front of the field. But you never go green at the end of those races and then we got swept up in other people’s messes and it ruined our day. It didn’t go great at all from that perspective but we did make gains on the road course program.”
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