WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A snow-delayed race that featured rain and sleet had drivers spinning out as they battled each other and their rain tires Wednesday night in NASCAR’s preseason exhibition Clash.
So maybe it was appropriate that Ryan Preece, a short-track modified standout from the Northeast who had not won a Cup points event, captured the marathon that took 2 hours, 20 minutes on the historic quarter-mile at Bowman Gray Stadium.
“I’m a quarter-mile killer,” Preece said. “When it comes to this style of racing, it’s what I grew up doing. … It’s not a points race, but winning means everything. Man, I’m just speechless.”
Ryan Preece finally found his way to victory lane.
Here are my takeaways:
1. Big Win For Preece
Preece often wears his emotions, and his excitement after the victory was obvious. He has 223 Cup starts with seven top-five finishes, and he enters his second year with his best Cup opportunity competing for RFK Racing.
How he intended to celebrate tells everything about the 35-year-old Preece.
After the win, he planned on driving seven hours to Florida to compete in some short-track events at New Smyrna Speedway, just about 30 minutes south of Daytona, before getting in his Cup car next Wednesday. Preece will race in both a late model and modified that he and his family own.
He obviously thought he would have more time to get to New Smyrna until the race ,originally scheduled for Sunday, was postponed to Wednesday because of a weekend snowstorm.
“I’ll celebrate in New Smyrna,” Preece said. “I race, man. It’s what it’s about. This is going to make that drive a hell of a lot better because seven hours, I figure I’ll get to … New Smyrna about 7 a.m.
“We’ll just grind it out.”
Just like he did to win the Clash in leading the final 45 laps.
Ryan Preece celebrates Cup win #1.
2. Denny Hamlin Perseveres
Hamlin persevered to a fifth-place finish, following Preece, William Byron, Ryan Blaney and Daniel Suarez across the finish line.
Among those five, Hamlin was involved in the most cautions, finding himself turned at least a few times during the race.
Considering his last few months — losing the Cup title in the final laps at Phoenix, his 23XI Racing team pretty much winning its antitrust trial against NASCAR and his father dying in a house fire that also severely injured his mother — Hamlin had hoped to find a little bit of normalcy by getting back in a race car.
“It was a good preseason [race], but I think once we get to Daytona, things will start to get a little bit more normal, things will be a little more serious. And you’ll know the stakes are going to get high here in 10 days [with the Daytona 500],” Hamlin said.
Denny Hamlin (left) found himself spinning often at the Clash.
3. Fuel Call Controversy
With the exhibition race not counting caution laps and the caution flying 17 times, NASCAR opted after a few drivers ran out of fuel to allow all cars to pit for fuel. The thing is, at least Chase Briscoe’s team felt they had filled up their tank full prior to the race just for such a scenario.
Briscoe, who led 35 laps, ended up sixth, and his crew chief James Small was less than pleased.
“I didn’t know all the circumstances that were going on, but I know James was not thrilled with the situation,” Briscoe said. “It definitely after that, it kind of killed me. And a lot of guys were doing adjustments, and you weren’t supposed to be doing adjustments. … Kind of frustrating a little bit.”
NASCAR also let William Byron, who ran out of fuel to bring out the caution where NASCAR opted to allow everyone to refuel, to regain his position. Considering it was an exhibition event, there likely will be discussions over how it was handled, but hard feelings should subside quickly.
Cold weather and precipitation made for an eventful race on Wednesday.
4. Daniel Suarez Shines
Suarez, in his first outing for Spire Motorsports after spending the last five years at Trackhouse Racing, posted a solid result.
He was his typical fiery self, and it appeared at times that he raced his former Trackhosue teammates harder than others.
“I race people the same way they race me,” Suarez said. “I love everyone. If they give me love, I give love. If they give me hate, I give hate.”
4 ½: What’s Next
The Cup Series heads to Daytona, but the discussion will be whether this event continues at Bowman Gray Stadium. It’s a historic venue — owned by the city of Winston-Salem with the facility doubling as the football stadium for Winston-Salem State University — and NASCAR has staged the Clash there the last two years to generate excitement of going back to its roots.
As this event showed, racing in February can be a challenge. The area had a rare significant snowstorm — more than eight inches fell Saturday — and the race was run in frigid temperatures that included at one point ice pellets falling from the sky. It resulted in the final half of the race being run in the wet with rain tires – and 13 times NASCAR waved the caution flag for spins or wrecks.
“I don’t think you can judge a race or a track off of that weird weather circumstance,” said Ryan Blaney, the 2023 Cup Series champion. “I think this place, honestly, judging off the first half, put on a good show.
“Just the way [in the rain], calamity as it would be with anyplace. I appreciate the fans sticking around all night. I bet that was brutal in those aluminum grandstands. Cold asses up there.”
Fireworks light up the sky during pre-race festivities at the Clash.
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