Ryan Preece Finally Gets His Moment: Daytona Win Sends the No. 60 to The Chase

Ryan Preece spent years fighting for opportunities in NASCAR. At Daytona, with his season on the line, he finally got the breakthrough he had been chasing.

There may not have been a more fitting place for Ryan Preece to earn his first points-paying NASCAR Cup Series victory than Daytona International Speedway. Daytona has given Preece some of the most frightening moments of his career, and he arrived for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 facing another daunting challenge. This time it wasn't about surviving a crash. Preece entered the regular-season finale 31 points behind Shane van Gisbergen for the final spot in The Chase. By the end of the night, he had erased that deficit, won the race and extended his season.

It certainly didn't start like a story destined for Victory Lane. As Stage 1 came to an end, Preece was caught in an incident involving RFK Racing teammate Chris Buescher and Kyle Larson. All three cars went spinning through the Daytona grass, and while Preece was able to continue, the driver he was chasing in points was having a very different night. SVG went on to win the opening stage and collect 10 points. The 31-point mountain Preece needed to climb suddenly looked even bigger.

The No. 60 team refused to disappear. After repairs, Preece worked his way back through the field and ended Stage 2 in second behind Ryan Blaney. It was one of the most impressive parts of his night and something that can easily get lost when all anyone remembers is the overtime finish. Preece had gotten himself in trouble, recovered and put himself right back into the fight. At Daytona, sometimes simply surviving is an accomplishment. Preece was doing more than surviving.

The final stage became a balancing act between fuel mileage and track position. Preece and crew chief Derrick Finley stretched their fuel and kept the No. 60 near the front as the laps disappeared. When Carson Hocevar's crash brought out a caution on Lap 155, the strategy became even more important. Van Gisbergen came to pit road to make sure the No. 97 could reach the finish, while Preece remained near the front. SVG would restart 27th. Preece would restart alongside Zane Smith on the front row.

At that point, Preece no longer needed a calculator. There was one very simple way to settle the Chase battle.

Win.

The final lap delivered exactly the kind of chaos Daytona has built its reputation on. Smith was in position to win before contact with Tyler Reddick sent the No. 38 around and triggered a multicar crash down the backstretch. Preece had surged ahead, and when NASCAR displayed the caution, the No. 60 was in front of Daniel Suárez. The race was over. After 249 Cup Series starts, Preece finally had his first points-paying victory.

The result completed an incredible turnaround in the championship battle. Preece earned 67 points at Daytona compared with 19 for SVG, turning a 31-point deficit entering the night into a 17-point advantage when it was over. SVG had done almost everything right early in the race, including winning Stage 1, and it still wasn't enough. Preece had found the one result that could change everything.

There's another layer to the story because of Preece's history with Daytona. His violent crash during the 2023 summer race remains one of the most memorable wrecks of the Next Gen era, with his car repeatedly flipping through the grass. Daytona has quite literally sent Preece flying through the air. That's why watching him finally celebrate there felt different. During our post-race discussion, that redemption angle immediately stood out. This wasn't just a driver finally getting his first points-paying Cup win. He did it at a track that had dealt him some brutal hands in the past.

Preece had already shown in 2026 that he could get the job done, winning the exhibition Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium earlier in the year. Daytona removes the qualifier. He doesn't have to be introduced as a driver who has won a Cup exhibition race but never a points race anymore. Ryan Preece is a NASCAR Cup Series winner, and RFK Racing's decision to put him in the No. 60 has now produced one of the biggest moments of the season.

None of this means Preece suddenly enters The Chase as the championship favorite. He begins the 10-race postseason as the 16th seed, with a lot of very fast race cars ahead of him. What Daytona gave him was something far more important than predictions about how deep he might go.

It gave him a chance.

That's really what the Ryan Preece story has always been about. Give the guy a chance and see what he can do with it. At Daytona, he got one.

This time, he didn't let it get away.