Ryan Preece had never won a points-paying Cup Series race in 7 full-time seasons. He fixed that at Daytona in the most Daytona way possible: an overtime scramble, 41 lead changes, and a margin of 0.024 seconds over Daniel Suarez at the checkered flag. It was the regular-season finale, so the win didn't just end a personal drought -- it locked him into the Chase and knocked Shane van Gisbergen out of the field in the process.
First NASCAR Cup win for the 860 ever? Congrats @RyanPreece_ 🏁🏆
Preece came into the night 17th in points and outside the playoff cutline, chasing a 31-point gap to van Gisbergen with basically one card left to play: win the race and none of the points math matters. He led only 5 of the 166 laps -- the race ran 6 laps past its scheduled distance because of the overtime restart -- but he was the guy in front when the white flag mattered, which is the only lap total that counts on a superspeedway.
There's an asterisk-shaped wrinkle to the "first Cup win" framing. Preece technically won the Cook Out Clash exhibition at Bowman Gray Stadium back in February, but that race doesn't count toward official standings or win totals. Daytona is the real one -- the first points-paying Cup win of his career, after 6 prior full-time seasons with RFK Racing and its predecessor without one.
This win also cleans up a mess from earlier in the year. NASCAR docked Preece 25 points and fined him $50,000 back in May for intentionally wrecking Ty Gibbs at Texas, a penalty that survived an appeal and had been dragging on his playoff hopes all summer. A trip to victory lane at Daytona erases all of that math -- a win-and-in makes the points deficit irrelevant.
Ryan Preece. Incredible. What an end to the nascar regular season
For a driver who spent years grinding through part-time rides and mid-pack full-time seasons before this breakout year -- 3 top-5s and 14 top-10s in 2025 alone, both triple his previous career highs -- this is the validation lap. RFK Racing has already exercised his option for 2027, and now he heads into the Chase with real momentum instead of a longshot bid to sneak in on points.
The bigger story going forward is what Preece does with the opportunity. Cup Series playoff fields are littered with drivers who backed into the postseason on a fluke superspeedway win and got bounced in the first round. Preece has a real shot to be more than a feel-good storyline if the No. 60 team can carry any of this Daytona magic into the Chase openers.