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Solid finish despite frustrating start for Ryan Preece

It wasn’t until group qualifying for the Icebreaker 150 at Thompson on Sunday that Ryan Preece stepped back into his TS Haulers No. 6.

And yet, after a frustrating race that saw Preece go from the back to the front and back again, the 27-year old found himself inside the top-5 by the checkered flag.

“We had to start in the back, which kind of sucked,” Preece told Short Track Scene after finishing fourth. “I messed up in qualifying, and we just missed it with some things. This track was so cold, I could never really get any of what my stuff needed to be at.”

Preece, through pit strategy, was never able to get to the lead. But the fresh tires he had allowed him to drive through traffic multiple times. Had there been more green flag laps for Preece in the final stretch of the race, he may have been able to rally even higher up the running order.

“When we came in for the change, our car was better,” said Preece. “But we really didn’t get any laps to show it. Think we got five green flag laps total on our last set of tires.”

Still, Preece can’t say he had a bad weekend by any stretch of the mind. Competing in the Xfinity Series race contested at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday, Preece contended for the win, finishing fifth in that event. Thanks to his strong run, Preece will have the chance to bank $100,000 in the Dash4Cash race held at Bristol next Saturday.

“It was a good weekend there [in Texas],” said Preece. “Felt like we had a second-to-third place-car… Just got a little too tight at the end there.”

“But at the end of the day, you know, a fifth-place finish, we’re going in the right direction. We’re going to keep building speed into the cars and keep working. Hopefully the win’ll come soon. All you gotta do is keep knocking on the door.”

Two top-fives and a chance at $100,000 highlighted yet another important week for Ryan Preece.

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Paul Lambert is an aspiring collegiate journalist. A writer and broadcaster, Paul's excited to cover New England short track racing in 2022. Paul has also been published in the Boston Herald, Speedway Illustrated and on Autoweek.com.

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