Ryan Preece earns huge win in Daytona thriller, eliminating Shane van Gisbergen from the Chase

In his 249th career start, Ryan Preece has finally won a NASCAR Cup Series race. He claimed victory under caution, just ahead of Daniel Suarez and Tyler Reddick.

The win was enough to push Preece up into the Chase, eliminating Shane van Gisbergen in a stunning upset. It was a wild night for the RFK Racing driver, who ended Turn 1 spinning through the grass, only to fight back and win his way into the Chase.

"I'm just speechless right now," said Preece. "But those guys, that 60 group, we're fighters. When you put our back against the wall, we swing hard. So thank you to OIKOS, thank you to Kroger, to RFK, Jack Roush, the Fenway Group. Brad Keselowski. Last year there were a lot of keyboard warriors saying I was nothing. Well, we just kicked their butts tonight.

Preece continued: "It's a testament of how prepared these race cars are, man. I'm a racer. I know what it takes to build speed. So every man and woman at RFK, thank you for giving me a rocket ship so I could go to the moon tonight."

NASCAR is still sorting through the results, but unofficially, it's Preece, Suarez, Reddick, McDowell, and Stenhouse inside the top five. Cindric, A. Dillon, Bowman, Berry, and Custer filled out the remainder of the top ten.

Stages 1 and 2

Chastain led the field from pole position, with Mark Martin waving the green flag. The new rules package seemed to produce constant action, but the top lane was the dominant line.

Early in the race, Hamlin complained about having no rearview camera, which is crucial at these superspeedway races.

The short opening stage had the main bubble drivers at the front, as Van Gisbergen and Preece battled for stage points.

On the final lap of the opening stage, Buescher moved into the race lead. He had Preece directly behind him, but Larson broke up the RFK duo. Exiting Turn 4, Larson gave a big shot to Buescher with Van Gisbergen also pushing him, but Larson was off-center and hit Buescher in the right-rear.

That contact sent Buescher into the outside wall, and the down across the track. Both Larson and Preece were collected, with Buescher nearly going airborne in the infield grass. Larson and Preece slid across the line, still inside the top ten as they straightened their cars out. They carried on, but Buescher had to spend a lot of time behind the wall for repairs.

CARS EVERYWHERE!!! 🫨

Buescher goes into the wall, and van Gisbergen takes Stage 1! 🏁 pic.twitter.com/Cza2w3LHxn

— NASCAR on USA (@NASCARonUSA) August 30, 2026

But the first driver through the smoke? It was Van Gisbergen, earning his first-ever oval stage one. Van Gisbergen was followed by Gibbs, Logano, Jones, Briscoe, Larson, Wallace, Preece, Nemechek, and Cindric.

The entire field came down pit road, and when the race restarted, it was Logano in command. Stage 2 was a bit longer, but with enough saving, teams could still avoid green-flag pit stops.

Despite the spin, Preece quickly made his presence known at the front of the field. The lead traded hands numerous times, but unlike Stage 1, there were no incidents.

On the final lap of the stage, Elliott was in command, but Blaney blew by him on the inside with Preece following. Elliott fell all the way back to ninth in the final half-lap of Stage 2.

Blaney won Stage 2, followed by Preece, Smith, Byron, Gilliland, Larson, Briscoe, Suarez, Elliott, and Hill.

Stage 3

During the stage break, Nemechek spun on pit road after contact from Suarez. Gilliland won the race off, and fuel was going to be very close for all teams.

As the final 60-lap sprint got underway, A. Dillon touched the wall but continued.

There was constant three-wide battling throughout the field, but with just under 40 to go, Chastain led a small group of Chevrolets onto pit road. Despite having just five cars, they were much faster than the much larger pack out front, as the field still tried to hit their fuel numbers.

With 17 laps to go, the Hendrick trio that was leading the race came down pit road, bringing a few cars with them as well.

However, most of the cars were trying to go distance. With just a few laps to go, Hocevar lost control while trying to take the lead, crashing heavily and taking Jones with him.

That pushed the race into overtime, with Smith leading the race. Van Gisbergen chose to pit for fuel, while Preece stayed out as he was running second and needed to win the race.

It was a chaotic two-lap dash, with Smith trying to hang onto the race lead. On the final lap, Smith slammed the wall after trying to block a run from Reddick, leading to a multi-car pileup on the backstretch.

NASCAR kept the race green, but once Blaney got turned head on into the wall a few seconds later, they threw the yellow. At the moment of caution, Preece was ahead of Suarez.

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Cla	Driver	#		Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Interval	Pits	Points
1	R. PreeceRFK Racing	60		Ford	166	2:40'57.884		8	67
2	D. SuarezSpire Motorsports	7		Chevrolet	166	+0.024 2:40'57.908	0.024	11	38
3	T. Reddick23XI Racing	45		Toyota	166	+0.641 2:40'58.525	0.617	11	34
4	M. McDowellSpire Motorsports	71		Chevrolet	166	+0.642 2:40'58.526	0.001	10	33
5	R. Stenhouse JrHyak Motorsports	47		Chevrolet	166	+1.362 2:40'59.246	0.720	11	32
6	A. CindricTeam Penske	2		Ford	166	+2.107 2:40'59.991	0.745	9	32
7	A. DillonRichard Childress Racing	3		Chevrolet	166	+2.806 2:41'00.690	0.699	11	30
8	A. BowmanHendrick Motorsports	48		Chevrolet	166	+4.088 2:41'01.972	1.282	10	29
9	J. BerryWood Brothers Racing	21		Ford	166	+4.315 2:41'02.199	0.227	6	28
10	C. CusterHaas Factory Team	41		Chevrolet	166	+4.316 2:41'02.200	0.001	10	27
11	D. HamlinJoe Gibbs Racing	11		Toyota	166	+4.444 2:41'02.328	0.128	13	26
12	H. Burton23XI Racing	35		Toyota	166	+6.849 2:41'04.733	2.405	5
13	C. BriscoeJoe Gibbs Racing	19		Toyota	166	+6.850 2:41'04.734	0.001	9	34
14	B. KeselowskiRFK Racing	6		Ford	166	+6.896 2:41'04.780	0.046	6	23
15	J. NemechekLegacy Motor Club	42		Toyota	166	+9.864 2:41'07.748	2.968	10	24
16	C. Heim23XI Racing	67		Toyota	166	+10.079 2:41'07.963	0.215	9
17	C. BellJoe Gibbs Racing	20		Toyota	166	+10.080 2:41'07.964	0.001	9	20
18	J. LoganoTeam Penske	22		Ford	166	+15.928 2:41'13.812	5.848	6	27
19	T. GillilandFront Row Motorsports	34		Ford	166	+16.329 2:41'14.213	0.401	5	24
20	B. Wallace23XI Racing	23		Toyota	166	+17.471 2:41'15.355	1.142	7	21
21	T. DillonKaulig Racing	10		Chevrolet	166	+18.143 2:41'16.027	0.672	8	16
22	W. ByronHendrick Motorsports	24		Chevrolet	166	+18.346 2:41'16.230	0.203	11	22
23	C. ElliottHendrick Motorsports	9		Chevrolet	166	+18.728 2:41'16.612	0.382	11	16
24	R. ChastainTrackHouse Racing	1		Chevrolet	166	+19.167 2:41'17.051	0.439	11	13
25	C. ZilischTrackHouse Racing	88		Chevrolet	166	+19.168 2:41'17.052	0.001	12	12
26	N. GragsonFront Row Motorsports	4		Ford	166	+20.558 2:41'18.442	1.390	8	12
27	A. HillRichard Childress Racing	33		Chevrolet	166	+21.019 2:41'18.903	0.461	8
28	S. van GisbergenTrackHouse Racing	97		Chevrolet	166	+24.875 2:41'22.759	3.856	10	19
29	D. DyeLive Fast Motorsports	78		Chevrolet	166	+59.964 2:41'57.848	35.089	8
30	A. AllmendingerKaulig Racing	16		Chevrolet	166	+1'12.923 2:42'10.807	12.959	8	7
31	K. LarsonHendrick Motorsports	5		Chevrolet	166	+1'21.265 2:42'19.149	8.342	10	16
32	Z. SmithFront Row Motorsports	38		Ford	165	+1 Lap 2:40'10.066	1 Lap	6	13
33	R. BlaneyTeam Penske	12		Ford	165	+1 Lap 2:40'10.306	0.240	5	14
34	T. GibbsJoe Gibbs Racing	54		Toyota	165	+1 Lap 2:40'11.025	0.719	6	12
35	C. WareRick Ware Racing	51		Chevrolet	165	+1 Lap 2:40'11.187	0.162	7	2
36	J. GaseNY Racing Team	44		Chevrolet	165	+1 Lap 2:41'21.571	1'10.384	11
37	C. MearsBeard Motorsports	62		Chevrolet	165	+1 Lap 2:41'23.296	1.725	10	1
38	C. HocevarSpire Motorsports	77		Chevrolet	154	+12 Laps 2:18'54.479	11 Laps	6	1
39	E. JonesLegacy Motor Club	43		Toyota	154	+12 Laps 2:18'54.952	0.473	5	8
40	C. BuescherRFK Racing	17		Ford	151	+15 Laps 2:41'31.463	3 Laps	12	1