LOUDON, N.H. — Ryan Preece turned in one of his best performances of the year exactly when he needed it.
The question is will it be enough to advance to The Chase for the first time in his NASCAR Cup Series career.
MORE: New Hampshire results | Cup standings
Preece drove the No. 60 RFK Racing Ford to a ninth-place finish Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, earning 38 points to mark his second-most points gained in 2026, buoyed by 10 stage points gained in the opening stanzas of the race.
But for much of Sunday’s Dollar Tree 301, Preece looked even better than that, running at the edge of the top five through the Dollar Tree 301 as evidenced by his 6.16 average running position — his best of the season. Instead, the Connecticut native left his home track 17th in the season points standings, 31 points behind Shane van Gisbergen for the final spot in the 16-driver Chase field entering Saturday’s regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“It was almost going to be a home run before that caution (at Lap 225) came out and that last set of tires went on,” Preece said.
Preece was hounding Wallace for the lead after Preece pounced past Josh Berry for second. But in that same lap, Riley Herbst crashed in Turn 3 with Connor Zilisch, leading the field to pit road for the final time in Sunday’s race. While five teams took two tires, Preece and the No. 60 group took four and restarted seventh. But even with fresher rubber, Preece couldn’t charge through the field quite as well as he could previously.
“For whatever reason, that was just our loosest (handling) set of the day, and as you saw, it hurt us in the final 10 laps,” Preece said. “But to look at the positives, I mean, look at where we were as an organization on short tracks outside of Martinsville. We have not been that great, and today I felt like Brad (Keselowski) was really good on the long run. I felt like Chris (Buescher) was pretty good, and I felt like we were good on the short run. And and that one run when we were coming at Josh and Bubba, we were really good.
“So yeah, from a points perspective, I mean, drivers’ (points), we have a chance — a Hail Mary chance. But the owners’ (points), we have a real chance. So we’re gonna race the [expletive] out of them.”
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Indeed, there is a slight but significant difference for Preece in the drivers’ standings as opposed to the No. 60 in the owners’ standings. Preece was penalized 25 driver points and fined $50,000 following the May 3 race at Texas Motor Speedway in which he voiced displeasure with Ty Gibbs on his radio before resulting contact from Preece crashed Gibbs out of the race. So while Preece is 31 points out from advancing to The Chase, his No. 60 RFK team is only six points behind van Gisbergen’s No. 97 Trackhouse Racing team in the owners’ standings. Teams are ultimately paid by where they rank in owners’ points at the conclusion of the season.
The other wrinkle, of course, are the plentiful unknowns heading to Daytona, where a new aerodynamic package will debut without a practice session to find any bearings. Unsurprisingly, that challenge doesn’t faze Preece.
“I’m gonna race the hell out of it,” Preece said. “I mean, [SVG]’s the one that’s in right now and I’m not. Usually, when things are different and not predictable, I excel. And so does Shane. But it’s gonna be a heavyweight match.”