TALLADEGA, Ala. — As the sun set at the Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday afternoon, April 27, NASCAR Cup Series driver Ryan Preece climbed into his motorhome and sat in the driver’s seat.
Above the steering wheel, he stared at the frontstretch of a quiet Talladega, knowing he had a full six-hour drive back home to North Carolina.
And after a near win moments prior, he was going to spend every minute of it thinking about what could have been.
Proud of P2.
— Ryan Preece (@RyanPreece_) April 27, 2025
Even more proud I didn’t have to walk out of there. pic.twitter.com/lQ8njDRdWb
But his day was about to get worse. Only a couple of hours after the checkered flag, it was announced that he and fellow Ford driver Joey Logano were disqualified for failing post-race inspection. Instead of finishing in second place, what was his best career result, Preece was credited with a 38th-place finish.
After a nightmare Talladega day for his RFK Racing teammates Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher, the disqualification fit the narrative. The three-car team only scored five points between them when it was all said and done.
“If I won, I’d be drinking beer and celebrating with friends,” Preece told media on pit road after the race. “Instead, I’m going to jump in my motorhome and drive six hours thinking about what I could have done in that last half lap.”
RFK Racing’s woes began early in the race when the first crash, which occurred during green flag pit stops on lap 44, collected RFK team owner Keselowski when he was sent hard into an oncoming Ryan Blaney.
A replay of the incident. https://t.co/t9JYxgKYfv pic.twitter.com/S1jz10LZOs
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) April 27, 2025
“I was getting pushed as soon as I was coming off the corner, and I never had a chance to turn left and get on the pit road,” Keselowski told media outside of the care center. “I just got carried all the way down the straightaway.
“I know everybody wants to execute the pit stop as fast as they can, and nobody wants to leave anything on the table.”
Only moments later on lap 53, teammate Buescher joined his employer in the care center.
On the restart that followed Keselowski’s retirement, Buescher was collected in a wreck involving Christopher Bell after the latter received a bad push from Denny Hamlin.
Contact sends the No. 20 into the inside wall.@CBellRacing exited the vehicle under his own power. pic.twitter.com/7dkdalRtpu
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) April 27, 2025
The Texan was less than pleased.
“It’s unfortunate to be up front and be wiped out like that coming to a stage end of all things,” Buescher told media outside of the care center. “That’s really our way to be standing here right now. I have no clue what happened at this point.
“I didn’t expect it there. That was still what, 10 laps to go in the first stage? That’s a lot of time to find your position and get racing and be smart about where we’re pushing. … Maybe it was just a freak deal, but we know you can’t start pushing in the middle of the corner or on exit. You got to be straight to some extent.”
But the most tragic of the trio’s trifles was that of Preece.
The Connecticut native was leading at the end of the bi-annual 500-mile race at the behemoth racetrack in Alabama. Preece was side-by-side with fellow Ford driver Austin Cindric in front of a double-file field. The two were nose-to-nose for the final several laps, swapping the lead over and over. Cindric was hunting a third career win, but for Preece, it meant something more.
In 196 Cup Series starts, the former modified racer had yet to earn that coveted first career Cup Series victory. Now, in his first season with RFK and the No. 60 Ford, and after five full-time seasons of Cup racing, he was truly, finally, on the cusp of victory.
He just needed to get by the No. 2. The only problem was it was mostly out of his hands.
“[William Byron] shaded up like maybe he wanted to [pass me],” Preece explained. “But I don’t know if he was guarding behind him, so I wish I could have got that last little push, but at that point, you can’t drag back.
“I mean, there’s things you can do, but that late in the straightaway, you’re risking a lot. You’re risking giving up that little bit you add.”
For six laps, Preece and Cindric swapped the lead. As they passed the white flag, the No. 60 was scored as the leader, albeit only by a nose.
As they raced through the tri-oval for the final lap, Preece was ahead once again. If it had been Daytona International Speedway, where the start-finish line is located in the center of the frontstretch, Preece would be a Cup Series winner.
.@AustinCindric and @RyanPreece_ battle all the way to the line. Cindric takes it at the line at Talladega. 🏁
— Frontstretch (@Frontstretch) April 27, 2025
📸: @tanner_marlar pic.twitter.com/Ykui1E3wen
But it isn’t. It’s Talladega. In those few extra feet of racing toward the line near turn one, Cindric received a draft and a hard push from Hendrick Motorsports pusher Kyle Larson.
It was enough. Cindric won at Talladega. Victory had once again eluded Preece by only 0.022 seconds.
So close. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/R6cKF1zBdP
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) April 27, 2025
“We come here to win,” Preece said dejectedly. “Over the past six years or five years, I’ve done a lot of freaking losing. I feel like the dues are paid, and I’m putting in a lot of a lot of work.”
Before the disqualification, it was the 2013 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Champion’s best career result in a Cup Series race.
But that didn’t matter very much to a racer like Preece. He wants to win more than anything else.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy,” Preece said. “I’m happy with second because I’m not upside down. I didn’t finish 32nd. I was thinking about all those things during the race, but as a racer and as a competitor, I want to win. That’s what we want to do. That’s what we come here to do. Every driver will tell you. We come here to win.
“So, I’m proud of the second place. I’m proud of the execution all day. I thought we did a great job, but I’m not going to go home and drink beer and say, ‘Hell yeah.'”
After a disqualification, he’s sure to have more to think about.
“I say to my wife and a lot of people when you get done with these races, everybody has a lot of motor coach drivers,” Preece said. “I’m a motor coach driver, so when you win, it makes that ride a lot better.
“When you don’t win, it’s just you spending six hours thinking like, ‘Man, what would I have done different?’ So now, there’s going to be some ‘What ifs?’ when I drive home.”
Proud of the effort today & proud of everyone at @RFKracing.
— Ryan Preece (@RyanPreece_) April 28, 2025
Still happy we didn’t go in to the infield care center.
He has a long drive ahead of him.
Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loud column, co-host of the Frontstretch Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.
Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT