NASCAR Cup Series: Ryan Preece to JTG Daugherty Racing in 2019?
By Asher Fair
With A.J. Allmendinger set to leave JTG Daugherty Racing at the end of the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season, will Ryan Preece replace him in 2019?
It was confirmed earlier this week that A.J. Allmendinger, who has driven full-time for JTG Daugherty Racing since the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series season, will not be returning to the team once the 2018 season comes to an end.
This means that the seat of the #47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet will be open and the team will need to sign a new driver to be the teammate to Chris Buescher, the driver of the #37 Chevrolet, next season.
Ryan Preece, who currently competes part-time in the Xfinity Series, has been tipped to sign with JTG Daugherty Racing as the new driver of the #47 Chevrolet in what has become the latest development in what has already been one hectic Cup Series silly season.
.@JTGRacing has a statement coming out shortly, though it's unclear exactly what will be announced.
— Adam Stern (@A_S12) September 25, 2018
➖ @RyanPreece_ replacing @AJDinger in the No. 47 @Chevrolet next season has been talked about in the garage as a likely move for months. pic.twitter.com/D7jstqDp28
The 2015 season is the only season during which the 27-year-old Preece has made any Cup Series starts. He drove in five races that season for Premium Motorsports and recorded a top finish of 32nd place in the September race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
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The experience of the Hartford, Connecticut native as a full-time driver in NASCAR’s top three series is limited to the 2016 Xfinity Series season when he drove full-time for JD Motorsports. He finished in 17th place in the championship standings with one top 10 finish, a 10th place finish in the race at Darlington Raceway, throughout the 33-race season.
Preece has driven part-time for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity Series since last season, and he has had a lot of success in doing so. In the 13 races in which he has competed over the last two seasons, he has earned two victories, four podium finishes, eight top five finishes, 10 top 10 finishes and one pole position.
Preece has also competed in the the K&N Pro Series East, the Whelen Modified Tour and the Whelen Southern Modified Tour over the course of his racing career. Of those three series, he has spent the most time competing in the Whelen Modified Tour.
Since the 2007 season, Preece has driven in that series on a regular basis. In fact, over the last 12 years, he has competed full-time in the series eight times. He has missed just 21 of the 176 races that have been contested in the series since the 2007 season began.
In the 155 races that he has contested in the series, he has earned 22 victories, 76 top five finishes, 102 top 10 finishes and 16 pole positions. He won the 2013 championship and finished in second place in the championship standings in the 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2015 seasons.
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Will Ryan Preece replace A.J. Allmendinger as the driver of the #47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet in the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season like he is expected to? If not, who will the team sign instead? Will he end up landing a full-time ride with another team, and if so, will he compete in the Cup Series or in the Xfinity Series? If not, will he continue to drive part-time?