Preece proves he belongs, wins Xfinity race at Iowa Speedway
NEWTON, Iowa — Ryan Preece waited his whole career for a chance to race in a car as strong as the No. 20 Toyota of Joe Gibbs Racing.
Preece then went out and proved what he could do with topnotch equipment.
The 26-year-old Preece survived a green-white-checkered finish to win the NASCAR Xfinity race Saturday at Iowa Speedway for his first victory.
Preece, running the second of a two-race deal with the powerhouse JGR team, started from the pole and held off Kyle Benjamin on three restarts in the final 17 laps.
Preece, the Connecticut driver who is a regular in the lowerdivision NASCAR Whelen Modified series, crossed the start-finish line less than a car-length ahead of Benjamin.
“To be honest with you, I believed in myself enough to do it,” Preece said of using his Xfinity budget for just two races. “It is very risky. I had multiple people in the business tell me that it was a little (riskier) than they would do.”
The 19-year-old Benjamin was a careerbest second, followed by Brian Scott, Brennan Poole and rookie Cole Custer.
William Byron, who began a streak of three wins in five races at Iowa last month, finished ninth and Justin Allgaier was 20th after leading 106 laps. TRUCKS: Kyle Busch dominated another race and was clearly the driver to beat until a late wreck knocked him out. Kyle Busch Motorsports still took the checkered flag. Christopher Bell passed John Hunter Nemechek for the lead with six laps left and held on to win at Pocono Raceway. Bell chased down Nemechek and held off Ben Rhodes over the final two laps to win for the fourth time this season. Bell crashed out of one race but hasn’t otherwise finished worse than ninth in 12 races this season. Rhodes, the pole sitter, was second, followed by Ryan Truex, Nemechek and Johnny Sauter. Busch, with two wins this season, led most of the race until he connected Justin Haley and spun into the outside wall. Haley blamed himself for the wreck.