Ryan Preece said before the final restart of Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 that he was going to leave everything on the racetrack.
And with fuel dwindling, the field flying apart behind him and both his first career NASCAR Cup Series win and the final spot in the Chase on the line, Preece drove the best lap of his life to win at Daytona International Speedway and make NASCAR’s postseason for the first time in his career.
“We (expletive) did it!,” the 35-year-old from Berlin, Conn., native exclaimed over the radio.
“I’m just speechless right now,” Preece told NBC. “That 60 group, we’re fighters. When you put our back against the wall, we swing hard. Two years ago, there was a lot of keyboard warriors saying I was nothing. We kicked their butts tonight.”
Preece was sent spinning through the infield grass on Lap 35 as the field came to the end of Stage 1, and Shane van Gisbergen won the stage, which put Preece behind the eight ball in the battle for the final Chase spot.
Van Gisbergen, who was also worried about fuel, pitted before the final restart and finished the race in 27th, missing the Chase by 16 points.
Daniel Suarez finished runner-up, with Michael McDowell, Tyler Reddick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rounding out the top five. Austin Cindric, who also earned a Chase spot, finished sixth, with Austin Dillon, Alex Bowman, Cole Custer and No. 1 Chase seed Denny Hamlin completing the top 10.
The race was sent into overtime after Carson Hocevar spun in turn 3 with five laps left in regulation and collected Erik Jones.
“I was always super tight behind people it seemed,” Hocevar told NBC. “I changed from top to bottom there. First time I got a ton of air on my nose into three. I just lost it. It just kept going. I’m shocked it did that, it caught me off-guard for sure.”
Hocevar and Jones finished 38th and 39th, respectively.
Notable results
Other notable finishers include Harrison Burton in 12th, Chase Briscoe in 14th, Joey Logano in 18th, Bubba Wallace in 20th and Chase Elliott in 23rd.
Chris Buescher finished last (40th) after spinning with Preece and Kyle Larson on Lap 35. A damaged toe link on the No. 17 took him out of contention.
The Chase will begin with the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Sept. 6.
