Ryan Preece was busy locking up a Daytona 500 spot at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday night.
Less than four hours later, he was standing in victory lane after winning the John Blewett III Memorial 76 at New Smyrna, his first win of the week.
Preece didn’t even have time to change out of his NASCAR Cup Series firesuit, and was forced to start at the back.
No matter. Preece tore through much of the field in the early going, settled in mid-pack to conserve his tires, then made the race-winning pass on Eric Goodale with only seven laps to go.
“The whole reason I put myself through what I do is to win races,” Preece said. “Showing up here tonight, starting last and winning, it makes it worth that.”
Matt Hirschman made a charge to the front in the closing laps but came up one spot short for the second time in three nights. Third was Patrick Emerling, followed by Jon McKennedy and Ron Silk. Closing out the top-10 were Matt Galko, Eddie McCarthy, Chuck Hossfeld, Bobby Measmer, and Dave Sapienza.
READ MORE: Patrick Emerling wins Tuesday night Tour Modified feature at New Smyrna
Emerling started on the pole and led the opening 30 laps, before Goodale moved to the top spot.
For the third straight night, the race was littered with carnage, and struggled to get into a rhythm. Wednesday, however, took the damage to an entirely different level. Five red flags stopped the race.
Through it all, Goodale held the lead until a hard-charging Preece outdrove him into turn three in the final laps. Half a lap later, Goodale himself spun out.
Preece had to fend off Hirschman over the course of several restarts within the final five laps. Hirschman himself managed to rally after spinning in front of the field on a restart with 15 laps to go. Much of the reason he didn’t end up wrecked was because of Preece checking up behind him.
“Thanked him for not cleaning me out after I got cleaned out,” Hirschman said. “He was the first car I see when I spun around, coming right at me… I’ll go to bed and thank my lucky stars tonight that we have a race car.”
The full results can be found below:
- Ryan Preece
- Matt Hirschman
- Patrick Emerling
- Jon McKennedy
- Ron Silk
- Matt Galko
- Chuck Hossfeld
- Eddie McCarthy
- Bobby Measmer Jr.
- Dave Sapienza
- Amy Catalano
- Eric Goodale
- JR Bertuccio
- Craig Lutz
- Buddy Charette
- Chris Finocchario
- Tyler Rypkema
- Stephen Kopcik
- Chris Jensen
- Burt Myers
- Anthony Nocella
- Ronnie Williams
- Jeremy Gerstner
- Tommy Catalano
- Jimmy Blewett
- Danny Knoll Jr.
- Marcello Rufrano
- Tom Martino Jr.
- Tyler Truex
- Bobby Jones
- Chris Ridsdale
- Jonathan Laureigh
- Paul Hartwig
- Randall Richard
- Jim Gavek
- Brian Robie
- Ron Mullen
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