Twice in the last four years, Ryan Preece has faced an uncertain future in the NASCAR Cup Series after losing his ride following relatively underwhelming stints with different teams.
From 2019 to 2021, he competes for JTG Daugherty Racing, and the 2021 season was no sure thing for him initially, as JTG Daugherty Racing had to run a non-chartered (open) car to keep him in a seat throughout the year. He lost his ride for 2022 and only managed to make two Cup Series starts, both with Rick Ware Racing.
The Berlin, Connecticut native got a career lifeline in 2023 with Stewart-Haas Racing when Stewart-Haas Racing demoted a struggling Cole Custer back to their Xfinity Series team, and while Preece secured a career-high 23rd place in the point standings, he matched his career-low with only two top 10 finishes.
He upped that tally with a career-high five top 10 finishes in 2024, but he only managed 26th place in the standings. And early in the season, it was confirmed that Stewart-Haas Racing would be shutting down once it ended, casting doubt over the futures of all four of their drivers.
All things considered, Preece probably had the bleakest career outlook at that point, following five relatively underwhelming seasons in the series and a limited number of seats still open.
Then RFK Racing came calling.
The two-car team expanded to three cars by leasing a charter from Rick Ware Racing, and they added the No. 60 Ford for Preece.
And after having had his career effectively written off twice, he has responded in 2025 with a resurgence that nobody saw coming.
Nobody, that is, except for the 34-year-old himself.
"I've never lost confidence," Preece told Beyond the Flag. "That's why I continue to race, outside of what I do, and I feel like the path that I've had, I've won and done it. I'm not just hopping in good cars and going and winning. I'm providing them for myself, at times, so I know what I need as far as being a racer goes.
"It’s just sometimes you need the right situation to click, and I’m grateful for that opportunity here at RFK, for Jack, for Brad, for the Fenway Group, for Chris and everybody here at RFK, so yeah, obviously being a race car driver, you see all the things people think about you, and even though they may not know your background or where you come from or the things that you’ve had to go through to be here, the challenges that you’re fighting when you’re in certain cars, that’s why it’s very interesting."
Preece finds himself in 14th place in the point standings and currently inside the provisional playoff picture after 15 of 26 races on the regular season schedule, and he would be higher had he not been disqualified from a career-high second place at Talladega Superspeedway back in late April.
"The dynamic that most people don't understand is when I was racing at Johnny Davis [JD Motorsports] with Ross, Ross and I, we had a lot of the same things that we had to fight," Preece said of his time in the Xfinity Series back in 2016.
"We didn't always have new tires. There are a lot of challenges that come with situations like that, so I feel like they have definitely made me better, and there have been a lot of moments that I've learned from over there, but yeah, I'm just glad we've been putting together a solid year so far, but the intentions are to win and do all those things."
So when he found out that he was losing his job after 2024, he accepted that as another new challenge to overcome.
"What I can tell you is that the racer in me said, ‘I'm not going back to just being here and running 30th,'" he continued. "I'm not letting people think that's who I am as a race car driver. There comes a challenge of making a living and providing for your family with some of those decisions, but I couldn't do it mentally.
"I know what I'm capable of. I know what I can do in certain situations if everything is there to be provided, so when we found out that SHR was shutting down, I think there was a lot of deep thought about what I need to do. Do I move back to Connecticut? Do I take up a different career, as well as continue racing, to have that same passion that I do for racing? Do I try to do something at a different level?
"There were a whole lot of thoughts, but the destination of what I was going to do was unclear, so really excited that I had the opportunity to come here to RFK, thanks to many different partners, as well as the belief from Jack and Brad and Fenway, so yeah, I'm excited to have had this opportunity and to be able to put a lot of consistency in our season. The next step is going out and contending for wins and winning races. That's where we're building towards."
Preece has envisioned what it might be like to get to victory lane for the first time in the Cup Series, and he has come close.
He nearly won at Phoenix Raceway in March before a late strategy gamble didn't pay off, and he proved his run was no fluke with a season-high third place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway the following week. He has since added five other top 10 finishes, already putting him ahead of his career-high for a single season well before the season's halfway mark.
"I’ve had those moments of doing things that people didn't think I could, and getting places and winning races that people didn't think I could, so I've changed my life a couple times before by doing those things," Preece admitted.
"I'm just out here doing everything that I know I need to do right and then continuing to be better every day and maximize those days, so yeah, I look forward to it. But it could be this weekend, it could be who knows, but yeah, one day I'm sure it'll happen and hopefully it happens many times after that."
Of course, he nearly won at Talladega, but it wouldn't have counted anyway after his No. 60 Ford was disqualified from the runner-up position.
"It sucks from a point standpoint, but I also feel like I'm proud of the way I raced in that race," Preece said. "I felt like the moves and the execution that not only the team did, but the decisions I made, were good, and they weren't influenced by car performance.
"I feel like if we had those shims out, the same moves, the same things would have been executed the same way, and it doesn't change anything to me, so definitely when I look back at that day, I think about execution from a team standpoint at a high level, and strong moves at a high level, so I'm proud of that, and when I go to Daytona, I'm going to try to do the same thing."
Some might think that, had Preece won, the disqualification would have been even more devastating. But Preece isn't thinking that way.
"I don’t," he said. "I was driving home in the motorhome and it kind of sucked, to be honest with you, because I probably had another three and a half hours to go, and that made the three and a half hours a little bit longer, but like I said, it’s not like we did something and got caught trying to intentionally cheat.
"We weren’t. We did something to pass inspection and unfortunately it was just an oversight, and everybody on my team, they’re real superheroes, and I’m proud of each and every one of them. And we picked up our shovel and started digging our hole somewhere else and started trying to get our next really good finish or win."
He is looking forward to securing that win eventually, preferably sooner rather than later.
"I know the feeling and the satisfaction of going out and earning something and the reward that you feel from that."