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Gentlemen from Connecticut, start your engines. The Nutmeg State just doubled its chances in “The Chase.”
Berlin native Ryan Preece, with an overtime victory Saturday night at Daytona in the Coke Zero Sugar 400, the final regular-season race in the NASCAR Cup Series, secured the 16th and final berth in the postseason.
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Preece will join Middletown native and former Cup champion Joey Logano in the 16-driver playoff series, which opens Sunday at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina.
On Saturday night at Daytona, Preece triumphed at a track at which he knew mostly trauma. He twice flipped cars at NASCAR’s iconic home track, last year during the Daytona 500 and in 2023 at the Coke Zero Sugar 400.
This time around, Preece dodged mayhem on the final lap when leader Zane Smith got bumped and spun into other cars. Preece safely navigated his No. 60 car to the front and took the checkered flag under caution.
With the first-place finish, Preece leap-frogged Shane van Gisbergen in the standings for the final playoff spot.
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“This is redemption,” Breece told the Associated Press. “Those guys, that 60 (car), we’re fighters. When you put our back against the wall, we swing hard.”
Preece’s victory gives his Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing team two cars in the playoffs. Chris Buescher has the other.
The 35-year-old Preece has been racing on the NASCAR Cup Series since 2015. Saturday’s victory was his first in a Cup points race. He first Series win came earlier this season at the Cookout Clash in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, just before he made an appearance in his hometown at Tavern on the Trax.
A 2009 graduate of Xavier High School, Preece started his career racing Midgets as well as Modifieds on regional tracks. He won the 2011 SK Modified season series at Stafford Motor Speedway. His future wife, Heather, was that year’s SK Modified Rookie of the Year at Stafford.
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This article originally published at CT’s Ryan Preece triumphs at Daytona, secures final NASCAR Cup Series playoff spot.
