LOUDON, N.H. — It was do-or-die for the No. 60 team this weekend as Ryan Preece returned to his home track looking to close the gap between him and Shane van Gisbergen, the current holder of the final Chase spot.
Preece entered Sunday’s (Aug. 23) Dollar Tree 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway down 50 driver points and 25 owner points in the standings and qualified 18th.
The entire field was thrown a curveball by Mother Nature as it had to begin the race on wet weather tires after rain clouds passed over the track about an hour before the scheduled green flag.
Preece began to move up the running order while the track was damp, and when the race changed to the regular slick tires, he managed to grab three points after finishing eighth in stage one.
Then at the stage break, both Preece and teammate Chris Buescher were two of several cars to stay out, which put the No. 60 out front. Preece kept the lead for 17 laps before being passed by Josh Berry.
At the end of the second stage, Preece had only dropped back to fourth, giving him seven more stage points and 10 on the afternoon.
The final stage started strong for Preece as he raced as high as third place after the final restart.
However, the No. 60 faded on the last green-flag run to the checkered flag, as Preece settled for ninth, earning 38 points in the race.
“I thought we were going to be in contention to win that race,” Preece told Frontstretch after the race. “Just that last set of tires, for whatever reason, wasn’t our best; we struggled.”
This result helped Preece narrow the gap to van Gisbergen by a significant margin, bringing him to within 31 driver points and six owner points heading into the regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway.
“We did a really good job this weekend; any time you can keep chipping away points, we need our big days,” Preece said. “We had a good day today, but it would’ve been even better if we could’ve won or chased down the leaders.”
Preece will “be on offense” at Daytona, working with his RFK Racing teammates to give himself a fighting chance. Of course, the whole field will get its first look at the new superspeedway package too, and you can count that as another obstacle between Preece and a Chase spot.
“I don’t know what to do until we get out there and at that point, just drive the s–t out of it.”
Michael Bellifemini joined Frontstretch in February 2026 as a contributor. Bellifemini was born and raised in New Jersey and graduated from Seton Hall University. He called Seton Hall men's and women's basketball games for their college radio station, 89.5 FM WSOU, and continues to broadcast in the area. Outside of covering NASCAR, Bellifemini is also an avid baseball, football, basketball, and hockey fan and enjoys watching different sports leagues on a daily basis.