Friday, May 20
Track: Texas Motor Speedway, 1.5-mile oval
Race: 9 of 23
Event: SpeedCash.com 220 (147 laps, 220 miles)
Hailie Deegan, No. 1 Ford Performance F-150
Start: 6th
Stage 1: 14th
Stage 2: 17th
Finish: 17th
Hailie Deegan recorded her career-best qualifying performance at the SpeedyCash.com 220, netting the sixth fastest time out of the field and starting on the third row for Friday night’s contest. Despite her strong qualifying effort, a tight-handling Ford F-150 and a slow pitstop at the end of Stage 1 would relegate the 20-year-old to the mid-pack, where she ran as high as 13th place before contact, and a fierce battle at the line relegated her to a 17th-place finish as the checkered flag dropped in Texas.
Tanner Gray, No. 15 Ford Performance F-150
Start: 12th
Stage 1: 16th
Stage 2: 18th
Finish: 24th
Tanner Gray qualified 12th and battled in the mid-pack for all of Stages 1 and 2. The Ford Performance driver reported that his speed firing off was hampered by lack of corner entry stability and team worked to combat it with air pressure adjustments at both stage breaks. In the final stage, Gray advanced forward as high as sixth but a potential top-10 run was derailed by contact with the 99 truck inside of five laps to go. The No. 15 crew repaired the fenders and Gray rejoined the field to finish 24th.
Ryan Preece, No. 17 Morton Buildings Ford F-150
Start: 5th
Stage 1: 1st
Stage 2: 1st
Finish: 3rd
Ryan Preece was the highest qualifying Ford driver by way of his fifth-place qualifying lap. He wasted no time charging forward to second and briefly took the lead on lap 15 before taking command of the race convincingly on lap 20 en route to victories in Stages 1 and 2. On the final stage restart, the Morton Buildings truck sustained left rear bumper damage that led to a pit stop under yellow to reattach the bumper. Preece restarted 23rd and battled all the way back to third for his second top-five of the 2022 season; he continued his streak of a top-10 in every Truck Series start of his career.
Next event: North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina on May 27 at 8:30 p.m. ET.
