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Ryan Preece Enjoys New England Before Competing At New Hampshire

by racerx55 August 22, 2026 0 comments

Story & Photo By Patricia McCormack

LOUDON, NH – Berlin, Connecticut’s own Ryan Preece took advantage of the New Hampshire race weekend to spend time back home in New England where he grew up racing quarter midgets and in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.

Preece started his weekend by racing in the Governor’s Cup, a Late Model race held on Thursday at the Thunder Road Speedbowl in Barre, Vermont. Preece, who was accompanied Brad Keselowski, met with fans and signed autographs before he climbed in his No. 60BH Late Model for the main event. 

”Just being home,” Preece said. “It’s a different feeling. Seeing all the familiar faces. The weather. It feels nice to walk out of the hotel and not feel like I’m hitting a wall of hot air.”

Thunder Road was not the only event outside of the NASCAR Cup Series that Preece is slated to race while at home. He’ll also compete in Saturday’s Mohegan Sun 100, the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour’s biggest event of their season.

“My father gave me a big head start when I came in and kind of was working on it [his modified car] on Wednesday,” Preece said.

To add to Preece’s busy week, he accompanied his fellow RFK Racing teammates, Keselowski and Chris Buescher to Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts to throw out the first pitch at the Boston Red Sox game on Friday night. Fenway Sports Group is a partial owner of RFK Racing (the team Preece drives for) as well as owning the Boston Red Soxs.

“For New England, it’s Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine,” Preece said. “It’s a whole bunch of states that just get around whoever is from New England – the sports team that’s from New England. We’re very passionate about our sports.”

Preece goes into the New Hampshire race weekend 50 points behind The Chase cutline after pit strategy and cautions caused a seemingly good day at Richmond Raceway to end with not so good results; however, Preece and his team are looking to bounce back this weekend. He finished 14th in last year’s race and 11th the season prior, so Preece is a driver to watch come Sunday.

“Sometimes you can’t control when cautions come out during pit cycles,” Preece said. “I did feel like going into the short tracks and New Hampshire it kind of gives me a little bit of optimism and I’m certainly excited about coming here to my home track – New England. Every time I come back home, it feels good. It feels different. I believe we can go here and hopefully qualify well and be a contender.”

Preece starts in the 18th position in Sunday’s Dollar Tree 301 and 21st in the Mohegan Sun 100 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race. Live coverage of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race will broadcast on FloRacing at 4:30 p.m. ET, and the NASCAR Cup Series race will get underway on Sunday at 2 p.m.