Ryan Preece is still smiling after his victory in the Bud King of Beers 150 on Wednesday at Thompson.
As he should, because as the Connecticut native will tell you, he likes to win.
He’s still smiling from his recent run of success in the NASCAR Whelen Modfied Tour and he’s still smiling from his Iowa Speedway victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. But, it was his smile in the press box on Wednesday night that created some controversy.
He won the race but needed a late caution to get back on the same strategy as the rest of the lead lap. Instead, he was the caution and his rivals accused him of spinning out on purpose.
“There’s nothing to say about it, other than I won,” Preece said. “We won the race and I got tapped from behind there. The funny thing about the articles were them talking about how there was a grin.
“We won the race. I like winning. Of course, I was grinning.”
Preece actually shared a photo of the damage on his car that he believes validates his story.
With his tour-leading fourth victory of the season, Preece moved to third in the championship standings and is just 19 points behind Timmy Solomito. What’s even more remarkable is that Preece already missed a race to get married.
He’s set to miss another race on September 23 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway to race for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity Series at Kentucky.
Barring a rain out, he’s not going to take the green flag, and will not ask Joe Gibbs to let him out of Xfinity practice and qualifying to try to make both events work.
“I’m giving up a championship because I want to be at this level,” Preece said of the Xfinity Series. “So, if it does rain at New Hampshire, then I would ask them if I could fly back with their Cup guys. But listen, I’m not going to be thinking about that at Kentucky. This is my goal. This is where I want to be.
“I want to show the world that I’m focused and this is where I want to be. This is what I want to do for a living.”
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