Ryan Preece reacts to coming just 0.022s shy of first Cup win at Talladega

After a deal came together late in 2024 to put Ryan Preece in a third RFK Racing entry for 2025, few would have expected to see Preece challenge for multiple wins early in the season. In a recent interview with Motosport.com, Preece even revealed that he was seriously considering a move back home as the spots on the Cup Series grid began to fill.

But Preece isn’t going anywhere, especially after Sunday’s showing at Talladega. For the first time in his career, he now has multiple top-five finishes in a single season, and this year is only ten races old. After finishing third at Las Vegas, he brought home a career-best second at Talladega — but it was so close to being so much more.

Still winless, but getting closer

It was a nail-biting finish with Preece drag-racing eventual race winner Austin Cindric to the lead, but Cindric had the advantage of a draft from lapped cars directly ahead of him that provided the necessary edge. At the line, the margin was a mesly 0.022s, and so Preece is now 0-197 in his NASCAR Cup Series career.

“I’m happy but as a racer, you want to win,” admitted Preece. “I felt like coming through the tri-oval, we’re all staying together and no one was really leaving me. I wish I didn’t have to shade up so much and maybe side-draft Austin [Cindric] to pull him back.”

Thanking all of his partners, Preece then added: “Without this opportunity, I’d probably be back in Connecticut racing Modifieds. So, this one is for the modified crowd.” Preece is a highly successful racer in NASCAR’s Modified division, earning a championship there in 2013.

Preece’s strong run leaves him solidly 13th in the standings, above both of his senior RFK Racing teammates — neither of which made it beyond the first stage at Talladega.

Speaking more on the finish later, Preece believes he and his No. 60 team “did all we could. I felt like we executed Stage 3 exactly like we needed to. We came out in the front of our group and worked our way through that traffic. We had the opportunity to get to the top lane and then from there it was just managing those cars behind us and not giving up what we gained. I’m really proud of everybody at RFK for this race car … It’s a great day, but I wanted to win.”