DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Known for two violent wrecks at Daytona International Speedway, Ryan Preece experienced a much different ride at NASCAR’s hometown track Saturday night: the first trip to victory lane of his Cup Series career.
Preece, the 35-year-old driver of the RFK Racing No. 60 Ford, won the regular-season finale in overtime to secure the final playoff spot in the 16-man field for the 10-race postseason known as the Chase.
Preece, who ferociously flipped cars at Daytona in 2023 and again in 2025, moved to the front of the pack during a green-white-checkered finish on the high-banked, high-speed 2.5-mile oval. Race leader Zane Smith got bumped from behind, then started spinning in the Front Row Motorsports No. 38 Ford and slamming into other cars on the last lap.
Preece took the checkered flag under caution and edged Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen for the last available playoff berth.
“This is redemption,” said Preece, whose joins teammate Chris Buescher in the postseason field.
The Chase begins next weekend at South Carolina’s Darlington Raceway with the Southern 500, a NASCAR crown jewel race.
“I’m just speechless right now,” Preece said. “Those guys, that 60 (team), we’re fighters. When you put our back against the wall, we swing hard. … Last year, there were a lot of keyboard warriors saying I was nothing. Well, we just kicked their butts tonight.”
Preece expressed confidence all week, but he found himself needing a victory late to pass van Gisbergen for the last playoff spot. Van Gisbergen finished 27th after pitting during the final caution and taking four tires on his No. 97 Chevrolet.
“Shame we’re not in it,” said van Gisbergen, who won twice during the regular season but missed the playoffs under NASCAR’s new format that puts more emphasis on seasonlong results than victories.
Bubba Wallace in the 23XI Racing No. 23 Toyota and Austin Cindric in the Team Penske No. 2 Ford locked up the other two available spots. Wallace, Cindric, van Gisbergen, Preece and RFK Racing driver and co-owner Brad Keselowski started the night vying for the final three spots.
Wallace, who was nearly a lock to make the Chase when the green flag dropped, secured his spot with a seventh-place finish in the opening stage. Cindric avoided trouble all night, finished sixth and advanced without much fanfare.
Daniel Suarez finished the race second in the Spire Motorsports No. 7 Chevrolet, followed by teammate Michael McDowell, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick in the highest-finishing Toyota and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in a Hyak Motorsports Chevy.
Cindric in sixth was followed by Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon, with Alex Bowman of Hendrick Motorsports, Josh Berry of Wood Brothers Racing and Haas Factory Team’s Cole Custer rounding out the top 10.
Denny Hamlin, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver and 23XI Racing co-owner who had already locked up the top seed for the postseason, was 11th and followed by Harrison Burton in the 23XI Racing No. 35 Toyota. Burton was behind the wheel as a replacement driver for Riley Herbst, who was scratched from the race because of “lingering effects” from a crash last Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Van Gisbergen won the first stage and created more of a cushion for Preece, who was caught up in a three-car crash as he neared the finish line. Preece raced his way back to the front in the second stage and picked up much-needed points with a second-place stage finish behind Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney.
Ultimately, though, it came down to the final lap. Preece needed to win to get in — and he pulled it off in dramatic fashion.
It was set up when Spire’s Carson Hocevar caused the overtime finish by spinning while making a move toward the lead and slamming into the outside retaining wall with six laps to go. Hocevar got a big run, turned low, lost control and slid back across traffic. Erik Jones rear-ended him so hard that their cars were briefly stuck together.
Preece, who broke through in the 249th start of his Cup Series career, had not registered even a top-five finish in more than a year, although he did win this year’s preseason exhibition Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
“I’m a racer. I know what it takes to build speed,” Preece said. “So every man and woman at RFK, thank you for giving me a rocket ship so I could go to the moon tonight.”