Ryan Preece: NASCAR Cup Chase 2026 Preview

After his cunning first career win the in the season finale at Daytona, Ryan Preece locked himself into the 2026 chase.

Preece will enter his first career NASCAR Cup Series postseason as the 16th and final seed and has the largest gap away from Denny Hamlin in first.

As large as that 100-point deficit looms over Preece, he has the least to lose. His inspiring and powerful win to enter the 2026 Chase can allow him and his No. 60 RFK Racing team the same all or nothing attitude towards the Chase.

However, the 16th seed realistically places him with little to no chance to win the championship unless he goes on his own Tony Stewart run.

The good news for him? It’s only up from here.

Steadiness, Setbacks and Surges

Since joining RFK Ryan Preece has shown up and shown out. Last season, he set personal bests in every stat besides the win column and laps led.

This season, he has seen a slight setback but the format change benefitted clean and consistent drivers like Preece.

Preece found steady top-15 results throughout the first half of the regular season which put him well inside the Chase cutline.

However, his regular season took a downturn at Texas.

NASCAR deemed his contact with Ty Gibbs as too severe. A $50,000 fine and a personal 25 point deduction in the drivers standings was a major blow.

Despite the slight decline in performance after the penalty, he sat as high as 13th in the standings as far into the season as the 12th race after Watkins Glen.

From there, poor results after the all-star break relegated him below the cutline. Preece and his No. 60 team fell into a Chase battle for the rest of the regular season.

He failed to jump back inside the positive side of the cutline and entered the season finale at Daytona 31 points behind Shane van Gisbergen for the final Chase spot.

Their regular season story finished on a high. Preece dominated the race and fought through great adversity after his closing trip to the infield grass in the first stage.

In the end, his behavioral penalty for the intentional run-in and subsequent post-race comments regarding Gibbs nearly costed him the Chase.

Now, Ryan Preece has the opportunity to put that all behind and chase something larger, a potential championship.

2026 Chase Outlook

While it might not be a maiden championship run after his maiden win, the 2026 Chase can provide the opportunity for Preece to further cement his teams status as a contender.

The 35-year-old will challenge teammate Chris Buescher to a friendly wager for the Chase. The fantasy-football-esque punishment will be named later, but what more do you have to loose when your company truck looks like this.

Words of wisdom. pic.twitter.com/IkQQuEQgq4

— Ryan Preece (@RyanPreece_) August 31, 2026

In order to win his bet against Buescher, he will have to return to the consistency he showed during the first quarter of the season.

Luckily for Preece, much of his top-13 performances early in the season that went onto define his postseason birth were at tracks featured in the Chase.

Those tracks include Phoenix, Las Vegas, Martinsville, Kansas, Darlington, and Bristol. That’s over half of the Chase right there for Preece.

If he can utilize those good notebooks and run well, he just might take some sweet revenge on the field but mainly Chris Buescher.

Ceiling: Tenth Floor: 16th

Preece’s Season Overview

2026 Stats

• 1 win
  • Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona
• 0 poles
• 2 stage wins
• 1 top-five finish, 7 top-ten finishes, 3 DNF’s
• 19.4 avg start, 16.6 avg finish
  • Avg. Running Position of 17.455 (16th-best)
• 55 laps led (21st-best)
  • Led season-high 21 laps during 18th-placed Talladega finish
• Driver Rating of 73.3 (16th-best)

Strengths

• Making adjustments during the race
• Superspeedways
• Riding the Daytona high

Weaknesses

• Starting position
• The 16th best out of 16 chase drivers
• The front is few is far between