Ryan Preece Looking to Get Back into CARQUEST Victory Lane at Stafford In TSI Harley-Davidson 125
Stafford Springs, CT — For Ryan Preece, the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour races at Stafford Motor Speedway have been a bit of an enigma. Since he recorded his first NWMT Stafford victory in 2009, Preece has 6 top-5 and 8 top-10 finishes in the last 14 races, but there have also been three finishes of 16th or worse. But with Preece’s strong qualifying results at Stafford, including 3 pole positions, he is confident that he and the #16 Diversified Metals / East-West Marine team can get back into victory lane when the checkered flag falls on the TSI Harley-Davidson 125 Presented by G-Oil next Friday night, June 14.
“I feel confident,” said Preece. “I think I have a great team and we’ll be in good shape either way. Usually with the 125-lap race, qualifying is pretty important. If you’re running 5th on back, you’re going to try to pit around lap-50 or wait until later in the race and try to make that late race charge back through the field. I’m not going to give away what we’re planning on doing, but whatever call Sly [Szaban] decides to do, we have a good car and we can get the job done with whatever strategy he chooses. I’d like to get a pole again at Stafford to back up the pole we had last year.”
Last time out at Stafford, Preece qualified fourth and finished seventh in the 200-lap CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler. While Preece was happy with the result for his team, he was also a bit disappointed they didn’t get a better finish and he will be hoping to rectify that with a top-3 finish in the TSI Harley-Davidson 125 Presented by G-Oil.
“I was really proud of the team after the Sizzler,” said Preece. “We’re trying to make moves in the right direction, and we are, but things just didn’t work out for us on that last restart. I think we would have finished second if not for that last caution, but sometimes it’s just not your day. We were happy with fourth because we were a little bit off with the car, but we tried something and we know what it did to the car, so we’re moving in the right direction. I guess you could say it was a bit of a bittersweet day. Any time you can bring the car home in one piece is a good day.”
In order for Preece to put the #16 back into victory lane at Stafford, he will most likely have to beat Bobby Santos, III, Doug Coby, and Ted Christopher, who have been the dominant three drivers at Stafford since the 2010 season. In the last 13 races at Stafford, Santos has 5 wins while Christopher and Coby have 3 wins each. The only other two drivers to have wins at Stafford in that timespan are Ronnie Silk and Todd Szegedy.
“Definitely Doug and Bobby have things figured out at Stafford,” said Preece. “We’re getting there on figuring things out and hopefully after the race we’re the car that everyone is saying they have things figured out. But it takes a lot of playing around with the car and hopefully we can hit the nail on the head for this race. If not, we’ll keep going into our notebook and make big swings at it to make the car better. It’s really close, we just have to find that sweet spot and we’ll get it. I haven’t won at Stafford in 4 years in a Tour car and I’d like to change that this year.”
Tickets for the 23rd Annual TSI Harley-Davidson 125 Presented by G-Oil are available and on sale now at the Speedway Box Office. Tickets are priced at $33.00 for adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children ages 5 and under are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. Reserved seating will be priced at $35.00 for all ages. All ticket prices include 10% CT Admission Tax.
For more information on the 23rd Annual TSI Harley-Davidson 125 Presented by G-Oil, or to order tickets, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com.
Sources: Scott Running/Stafford Motor Speedway PR