Preece Has Ambitious Schedule for 2013
Plans to Be Factor in NASCAR National Point Race
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — One of NASCAR’s busiest and most successful short track drivers plans an ambitious schedule this year. A proven contender, Ryan Preece wants to win races and collect championship points.
Preece, 22, of Berlin, Conn., won 16 times in 64 NASCAR sanctioned races spread among five different teams in 2012. He’ll run wide open with those same teams in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series and NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour this year.
Preece won the 2012 Sunoco Modified division track championship at Thompson (Conn.) International Speedway and placed second in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour point race. He placed fourth in SK Modified division standings at Stafford Motor Speedway in Stafford Springs, Conn., and 11th in NASCAR Modified track points at Riverhead (N.Y.) Raceway running a partial schedule. He made two NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour starts.
He started the 2013 season with a pair of northeastern indoor Midget races and had one top 10 finish. He had a top-five run in the NASCAR Modified division’s Battle At The Beach 150 at Daytona International Speedway last month until transmission issues slowed him and an accident ended his race.
“I live at the race track, that’s for sure,” Preece said. “I work with great crews – dedicated people – and car owners who want me in their cars. That makes it a lot easier on me. I’m fortunate to be in quality cars.
“We’re here to keep improving in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series,” Preece said. “I’ve been looking forward to this season. I’m going to give it 150 percent.”
Preece has been climbing the point ladder as his NASCAR Whelen All-American Series career developed. In national ranking he placed 52nd with 21 starts in 2010, seventh with 34 starts in 2011, and fifth with 48 starts in 2012.
“We improved to fifth but I was aiming for the top three,” Preece said. “This year we’re set on going for the national championship. That’s a prestigious title. Hopefully things go our way.”
Preece won his first SK Modified track title at Stafford in 2011, and added Thompson’s Sunoco Modified title in 2012.
“We’re pretty proud of what we accomplished at Thompson last year,” Preece said. “I expected to win a few… I was thinking three or more wins and I’d be happy. We had strong car and won 10 times. I’m glad I was the first driver to give (car owners) Albert and Cathy Moniz a championship.”
“We had the potential to do a lot better at Stafford last year. We should have won more than two features. The last point race of the season we were leading and snapped a shifter on a green-white-checkered finish. I think we would have had a shot at third in national points, but I needed to win that race.” He placed third.
Preece had two NASCAR Whelen All-American Series wins at Stafford and two more at Riverhead (N.Y.) Raceway last year. On occasion he misses a weekly Saturday night event at Riverhead due to a schedule conflict with the tour.
His Stafford SK Modified is owned by Kelly Iverson, Bob Hitchcock and Mike Paquette. At Riverhead he drives for four-time track champion Bill Park. The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour car is owned by Eric Sanderson and Flamingo Motorsports. In addition, Preece’s dad Jeff owns the car driven in selected NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour events. Outside of NASCAR he drives a Three-Quarter Midget in winter indoor events for owners by Mike Murphy and Steve Greer.
Preece has five career NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour wins. He won tour events at Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, N.H. and Riverhead last year. He finished 11 points behind Doug Coby for the 2012 tour championship. He was selected as the tour’s Most Popular Driver Award winner.
Now in its 32nd season, the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series is NASCAR’s national championship program for weekly short track auto racing. More than 50 tracks throughout the United States and Canada participate.
A NASCAR Division I driver’s best 18 results through the Sept. 15 closing date count toward their state and national point totals and the champions are decided on overall point total. Once a driver reaches 18 starts, their point total increases incrementally as they replace some poorer runs with better results.
Under the point structure for the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series, a race winner receives two points for every car in the event up to 20 cars. Second place receives two fewer points and so on through the field. Race winners receive an additional five points. For example, if 20 cars are in the field, the winner receives 45 points, second place 38 and third 36. If there are 15 cars, the winner receives 35 points, second 28 and third, 26.
Track operators also designate support classes as NASCAR Divisions II-V and drivers in those divisions compete for points in the NASCAR Finalist program. The program brings added recognition to support division drivers. Points are kept separately for asphalt and dirt tracks.
Pavement Late Model driver Lee Pulliam, 24, of Semora, N.C., won the 2012 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national championship.
More information on the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series is available at http://hometracks.nascar.com.
Sources: Paul Schaefer/NASCAR PR