By Neha Dwivedi, Staff writer
For the first time across a decade in the NASCAR Cup Series, Ryan Preece reached Victory Lane at the sport’s top level and even though The Clash isn’t a points race, it still counts to Preece.
The win came in an exhibition setting at Bowman Gray Stadium; the result dropped a big weight off his shoulders. Brad Keselowski had decided to bring Preece into RFK Racing as a third driver in 2024, and the latter carried that opportunity into the 2025 campaign. He closed that season with purpose, placing inside the top 15 seven times over the final 10 races, including top-10 finishes in four of the final five events. That stretch lifted him to 18th in the final standings, which marked the strongest season result of his Cup career.
And by carrying that momentum to this season, Preece validated Keselowski’s faith at Bowman Gray. Having started the race from P18, Preece drove through the snowy surface on wet-weather tires. He moved forward through traffic and took control of the 23-driver lot on Lap 156 by clearing Shane van Gisbergen after a restart four laps earlier and never surrendered the lead. That sequence carried him to the win in the second Cook Out Clash staged in Winston-Salem.
However, the 200-lap race was full of bursts and pauses, as17 cautions reset the field throughout. After the final restart on Lap 182 of 200, Preece opened a gap and crossed the line 1.752 seconds ahead of the HMS driver William Byron. By doing so, he also ended a trend of no driver having won after starting outside the first two rows, since the race adopted a quarter-mile format at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 2022.
“I don’t even know what to say. To be honest with you, it’s been a (expletive) long road. It’s the Clash,” an emotionally overwhelmed Preece said after the win. “But man, it’s just been years and years of grinding. I’m just super thankful for Brad Keselowski, Kroger, Coca-Cola, all our partners, Bam, break open the pappy. Jack Roush, the Fenway Group. Two years ago I didn’t think I was going to have a job. I thought I was going back to Connecticut (tearing up). I’m just super, super emotional.”
Reflecting on how the race went, the No. 60 RFK Racing Ford Mustang driver credited the work of his crew and the group effort behind the result. He praised the car and acknowledged that the day demanded endurance after starting deep in the field, as he had to fight through setbacks while trying to gain track position. Restarts fell his way at key moments, and each push forward placed him within reach of the front two rows before the decisive move.
William Byron finished second, delivering his best result in the Clash. Byron led 14 laps after starting from the outside pole and fought to protect track position before Preece moved past him. Even so, the runner-up finish marked a milestone in the HMS driver’s Clash appearances.
But to finish second, Byron had to compete aggressively with his own teammates, too. Between Laps 71 and 72, he nudged teammate Kyle Larson to slip underneath and claim the lead, which he held for those 14 laps. Through a race defined by contact and disorder during the wet-tire phase, Byron largely avoided the multi-car incidents that eliminated Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, and Chase Elliott. Over the final 18 laps, he fended off Ryan Blaney to secure second.
Byron called the event a test of endurance and said drivers leaned on one another as conditions shifted.
“It was just a marathon race. I feel like NASCAR did a good job with the rain conditions,” Byron said. “I wish we would have had a practice session in the rain, just to kind of understand the characteristics a little better. It just seemed like guys were kind of using each other up. But then it started to dry up there at the end and it was fun. Overall, it was a solid finish and good start to the season for the No. 24 Valvoline Chevrolet team.”
Meanwhile, behind Preeca and Byron, Blaney placed third, while Daniel Suárez and Hamlin completed the top five. Last year’s Clash winner, Chase Elliott, could only manage to reach up to P17 after starting from P11 due to multiple contacts and collisions during the race.
