Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Ryan Preece Nashville Midweek Advance
Tuesday, May 27, 2025
Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 60 RFK Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse, is coming off a ninth-place finish in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600. As the series shifts to Nashville Superspeedway this weekend, Preece talked about his two NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series wins at the track and what to expect in Sunday’s Cup race.
RYAN PREECE, No. 60 RFK Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW DID YOU TAKE TO THE NASHVILLE TRACK SO WELL SO QUICKLY? “That’s a great question and, to be honest with you, I think it just somewhat fits the style that I have, the style that I grew up racing. It seems to be a little bit more forgiving when it comes to some of the things that I tend to do and I really like it. I enjoy racing there and a lot of it is about being disciplined with the line there. I don’t necessarily know other than when I’ve gone back and looked and really continue to go back and look, I just like it.”
ELTON SAWYER SAID THIS MORNING THAT THEY’RE HAVING DAILY CONVERSATIONS ABOUT INCREASING HORSEPOWER IN THE CUP CARS. IS THAT GOING TO BE THE FIX THAT FANS WANT, OR IS THERE STILL GOING TO BE MORE THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE TO MAKE SHORT TRACK RACING BETTER? “I think a lot of it is the power to weight ratio. A lot of short track cars, outside of if you’re racing a USAC sprint car or midget, super late models or open or tight modifieds, they’re 2600 or 2700 pounds and they make about 650-700 horsepower, so the horsepower number is about the same. The difference is that a Cup car is 3500 pounds, so in all reality, I don’t know the exact number, but essentially that would be like racing a pro late model, or an SK modified, where they’re about 500 horsepower if you’re looking at power to weight. To me, as a race car driver, it just gives you another tool. It would certainly benefit my style if we added horsepower because there are things I do with the brake pedal or the throttle or brake bias – another tool on how to help your car exit the corner or when you’re setting up a pass being able to clear, having that extra horsepower, but at the end of the day if the rules are the same for everybody, you’ve just got to figure out how to do it better than everybody else. But, to answer your question on fans and what they want or what not, I’m just gonna use the 600 as an example. I went back and watched it and that race was a great race to watch. When I look at North Wilkesboro and how that race was, that was a good race to watch. That usually comes from varying strategies. I think it comes from a whole bunch of different things, so if we continue to make adjustments, I think we’re definitely gonna keep fans entertained, but I’m obviously somebody that is always gonna be of the ‘give me more horsepower’ and not just a little bit. It’s not a 30 or 70 horsepower increase, it’s like guys way back in the day were racing 900 horsepower and now we’re in 2025, so I’m not speaking for the engine builders. I’m speaking selfishly as a race car driver who wants the challenge.”
THE TRACK AT CHARLOTTE IS TEMPERATURE SENSITIVE. HOW DO YOU FEEL YOUR CAR WILL TRANSLATE FROM CHARLOTTE TO THE ATLANTA TRACK IN A MONTH? “That’s a great question. I thought Charlotte definitely went through the swing that we all talk about throughout the race. My car benefitted from it pretty early on, but I got behind and that just kind of became a top 10 car where I felt like if we ever got that track position in the first 50 to 100, we had a really solid race car. But Atlanta, I think that’s gonna be a place where that track is aging. I think even though it’s a superspeedway style race, handling is becoming more and more of a thing. At the same time, I think with it being at night time, the track temp goes down as it does when you have a night race. That certainly could band aid some of those issues, so I’m not really sure. I just hope that we continue to unload and do the things that we’ve been doing as the 60 team and RFK and we’re gonna be real contenders here.”
BRAD HAD A GOOD RUN ON SUNDAY NIGHT. THAT MUST HAVE BEEN GOOD TO SEE. “Yeah, he does a really good job. He has plenty of experience, too, but he is really good at keeping up with race tracks, giving input to keep making the car better, so that’s something where all of us, we push each other to be pushing in certain areas and that’s one that I wish I did a better job at this weekend with communicating when I was starting to get loose. Brad did a great job at it and obviously I’m happy the 6 team and Brad get a good finish that they deserve because they had a great run going at Kansas and blew a tire and it ended their day. I’ve been on the other side where things don’t go your way and it’s really tough to dig out of that hole, but Brad is a team player and somebody that just keeps plugging away.”
YOU SAID THE OTHER DAY YOU NEED TO QUALIFY BETTER. CAN YOU ELABORATE ON THAT? “Yeah. I wish I could tell you, but, to be honest with you, the one thing that seems to be a normal occurrence is qualifying from 28th to 32nd. There have certainly been times where we qualify really well and then there are other times when we qualify really bad. There doesn’t seem to be much of an in-between and that’s just something we’re gonna continue to keep working on.”
IS THE RACE AT MICHIGAN MORE ELEVATED BECAUSE OF THE MANUFACTURER’S PRESENCE NEARBY? “When it’s in your OEM’s backyard, you want to be the guy that carries the flag and wins for them. With Jack and everybody with Roush being from Michigan, with Ford and being the guy – like Chris has been super, super fast at Michigan and been able to win – so I think when we go to Michigan as a company at RFK, we want to be the ones that win it for Ford and carry the banner, carry the flag. Obviously, having a teammate like him and Brad, we have a really solid baseline and with Chris doing the test a month or so ago, I feel really confident going in there that we have three really good chances to do that.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE UPCOMING MEXICO CITY RACE AND WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR THE WEEK? “I can tell you that we just got done with our meeting for Mexico, so I’ve been reading up on some stuff. I think there are a lot of things that we’re all thinking about, but as a race car driver one of them is gonna be staying hydrated. How the elevation is going to affect us as far as being in the race car and breathing enough, so I’m not entirely sure but I am excited to go there because after talking with Daniel and he obviously grew up over there and had a lot of great things to say. I’m looking at it as a glass half full. I’ve never been out of the country, so this is gonna be my first experience and I’m really hoping it’s a great one.”
