Ryan Preece Prevails in The Clash Amidst Extreme Conditions
In a night marked by adverse weather and a record number of caution flags, Ryan Preece took the victory at The Clash, held at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The race, which took place in near-freezing temperatures, saw Preece, driving a Ford for RFK Racing, conquer his first triumph in NASCAR’s top category. The event, originally scheduled for Sunday, suffered two postponements due to the intense snowfall that hit the region. Preece joins figures like Jeff Gordon and Denny Hamlin as drivers who have won The Clash before achieving victories in points races. This triumph provides him with a significant boost heading into the Daytona 500, the inaugural race of the season to be held next week. The 200-lap race was full of interruptions, with NASCAR stopping it shortly after the halfway point due to sleet falling on the stadium. The cars were called to the pits to mount Goodyear rain tires, but many drivers complained of visibility problems due to the sleet and the glare of the lights. After a brief restart, the race was interrupted again when Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch were involved in incidents. From that moment on, the race became a succession of incidents, causing several cars to run out of fuel and the television broadcast to extend beyond what was planned, forcing the last 35 laps to be broadcast on cable. Preece, visibly emotional, celebrated his victory. “Two years ago I didn’t think I’d have a job, I thought I’d go back to Connecticut,” he stated. “I’m very, very, very excited.” After running only two races in 2022 and spending two seasons with Stewart-Haas Racing, Preece joined RFK Racing, the team co-owned by Brad Keselowski, for the 2025 season, where he established himself as one of the most prominent drivers. Since 2015, Preece has achieved 30 top-ten finishes in 223 races.William Byron finished in second place, followed by Ryan Blaney and Daniel Suárez, who made his debut with Spire Motorsports. Denny Hamlin completed the top five. Bowman Gray hosted The Clash for the second consecutive year. Previously, the race was held at Daytona International Speedway for 43 years, from its inception in 1979 to 2021, and then moved for three seasons to a temporary track inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Kyle Larson, the defending Cup Series champion, started from the pole position alongside Byron, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate and two-time Daytona 500 winner. Denny Hamlin, who has had an emotionally difficult offseason, started sixth in his first race since losing the Cup title in November. Hamlin revealed before the race that he re-injured a labrum tear that was surgically repaired before the 2025 season when he slipped on debris from the fire at his home in December that killed his father and seriously injured his mother. He said he would wait until the end of next season to fix it. “I don’t think it ever healed properly,” Hamlin said. “I fell a little bit at my mother’s house, going through all the debris and stuff, and I didn’t feel right. I rescanned it and tore it again.”It’s been a (difficult) road, and it’s The Clash, but it’s been years and years of hard work,” said Preece, thanking Keselowski.
Ryan Preece
