WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Not rain, sleet, snow or 17 yellow flags could keep Ryan Preece from winning Wednesday night’s Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium.
The exhibition race for the NASCAR Cup Series was delayed twice by winter weather and was run in sleet and rain with the final half of the event finished with rain tires on the cars.
Tricky conditions, higher horsepower cars, wearing tires and cars running out of fuel contributed to a wild and wooly race that was not one of the most interesting stock car races ever run.
But in the end, RFK Racing driver Ryan Preece, who has turned plenty of laps in a modified at the famed quarter-mile track, led the final 55 laps for the victory.
“I’m a quarter-mile killer,” Preece said. “When it comes to this style of racing it’s what I grew up doing. I used to drive for a guy, Eddie Partridge, and he owned Riverhead Raceway, and I was racing for Bill Park and it’s an absolute grind. The moment to get here, it’s a lead up to the year and it’s not a points race, but winning means everything. Man, I’m just speechless.”
Preece beat Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron to the checkered flag by 1.752 seconds.
“It was just a marathon race,” Byron said. “I feel like NASCAR did a good job with the rain conditions. I wish we would have had a practice session in the rain, just to kind of understand the characteristics a little better. It just seemed like guys were kind of using each other up. But then it started to dry up there at the end and it was fun. Overall, it was a solid finish and good start to the season for the No. 24 Valvoline Chevrolet team.”
Ryan Blaney was involved in multiple crashes over the course of the 200-lap race in which only green-flag circuits counted, but rallied to finish third in his Team Penske Ford. The race took two hours, 20 minutes and 15 seconds to complete.
“A pretty wild day. From the race, we were really, really good in the dry,” Blaney explained. “I thought we were the best car by a mile the first half, driving from 16th to fourth and I was really looking forward to getting the second half going and then it started raining. A wintry mix I guess you could call it, and then the rain tires went on and when we fired off in the rain I went straight backwards. I wasn’t good.
“My car wasn’t handling good, and then as it started to dry out my car came back. Even on the wet tires, my car came back a little bit and we were able to pick a couple good lanes and creep through there and ended up third. Overall, a back and forth night, but I’m proud of the effort and proud of a really fast car in the dry, and then just sticking with it in the wet. It dried up a little bit for us to be able to go back forward.”
Daniel Suarez was fourth in his first race for Spire Motorsports and Chevrolet, while Denny Hamlin was the top finishing Toyota driver, taking fifth for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Kyle Larson won the pole during qualifying, but finished 16th after a roller-coaster evening.
