Ryan Preece

Ryan Preece (born October 25, 1990) is an American professional stock car racing driver.

He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 41 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart–Haas Racing.

Preece previously competed in what is now the ARCA Menards Series East and the ARCA Menards Series West.

Preece began racing in 2007 and became 32nd in the championship in the Northeastern Midget Association with the Bertrand team.

A year later he finished on the podium for the first time in his career with a third place finish at Monadnock in his only Northeastern Midget race that year.

In 2009 and 2012, he was runner-up in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, but he became champion in 2013 with four wins in fourteen races driving for Flamingo Motorsports, owned by Eric Sanderson.

Preece competed in and won the championship in the SK Modified Series in 2011 at Stafford Motor Speedway, while his future wife Heather was the series' Rookie of the Year.

That same year, he got his first career victory in the Whelen Modified Tour after dominating the Made In America Whelen 300 at Martinsville.

He is also a veteran of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and won the series championship in 2013 after being the runner-up in 2009 and 2012.

Preece also made multiple starts in the defunct NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour.

He made his debut in the Nationwide Series in 2013 and finished 24th at Loudon driving the No. 8 Chevrolet Camaro for Tommy Baldwin Racing.

In 2014, he returned to the team and won the last two races of the year, coming home in second place in the final standings.

In 2014, he drove two races driving the No. 36 Camaro for TBR at Loudon and Homestead, with a best finish of 14th.

In 2015, he drove for TS Haulers Racing, owned by Ed Partridge.

On August 8, 2015, Preece announced he would make his NASCAR Cup Series debut for TBR at Loudon.

On November 24, 2016, it was announced that Preece would remain at JD Motorsports for another full season in 2017.

However, on December 8, 2016, it was announced that Preece and JD Motorsports had parted ways, letting Preece explore other opportunities.

Preece joined JD Motorsports full-time in 2016, driving the No. 01 Chevrolet in the Xfinity Series.

The primary sponsor was Flex Seal.

Preece has several decent runs for the mid-pack organization in 2016, just missing the first ever Xfinity playoffs.

The primary reason why Preece left JD is that he wanted to be in a team to win races and expected to be back in the Whelen Modified Tour in 2017.

He rejoined Partridge's team in the Modified Tour.

In July 2017, he returned to the Xfinity Series, racing at Loudon in the No. 20 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing with sponsorship from Mohawk Northeast and Mizzy Construction, finishing a career-best second behind teammate Kyle Busch.

The opportunity originally came after Kevin Manion contacted Preece about openings at JGR after the retirement of Carl Edwards.

At Iowa, Preece returned to the No. 20 with Mohawk and Falmouth Construction sponsoring.

Preece won the pole and held off teammate Kyle Benjamin on a late restart to win his first career Xfinity race.

After his Iowa win, JGR announced that Preece would also drive for the team at Kentucky Speedway in September (a standalone Xfinity race), and later Homestead (where Cup drivers, regardless of experience, are prohibited from participating).

Preece, with the American Red Cross on the No. 20 car, finished 4th at Kentucky.

Preece moved to Gibbs’ No. 18 Safelite Toyota at Homestead.

Preece was involved in a controversy, as championship contender Elliott Sadler placed the blame on Preece for blocking him on the final restart of the season.

Preece still managed a top 5 finish.

On November 15, 2017, it was announced that Preece would run another partial schedule with JGR in 2018, running at least ten races in the No. 18 car, sharing it with JGR Cup drivers Kyle Busch, Erik Jones and Daniel Suárez, JGR development driver Kyle Benjamin, and Australian James Davison.

While he is listed for ten races, more races are possible.

Sponsorship of Preece's races in the No. 18 would come primarily from Rheem.

A few of the races were instead supported by Ruud and its affiliate businesses.

Preece began his season with a 9th-place finish at California, his first time finishing outside the top 5 at Gibbs.

He got back in the top 5 a week later at Texas.

Preece became eligible for the Xfinity Dash 4 Cash after his good run at Texas.

The next week at Bristol, Preece won the race and the bonus, taking home the $100,000.

It was Preece's second career Xfinity Series win.