Racing needs heroes. It needs the drivers who win and win often, who become champions and rewrite the history books. Racing needs drivers such as Richard Petty, David Pearson, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.
Racing also needs the villains like Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip and Kyle Busch. They play the foil well, but they also win just as much. They earn their wins and make other drivers fight harder for theirs. They draw as many cheers as boos.
The rivalries between the sport’s best drivers are where legends come from. To fans, it might have been driver vs. driver, but the truth is, the heroes and the villains bring out the best in each other. They battle fiercely on track, but race with deep respect.
Who has worn the white hat and who has worn the black has always been subjective. They all had their loyal fans and the fans who wished someone else—anyone else—would bet them on any given Sunday. NASCAR needs the drivers who spark debate and even a little controversy—that keeps fans coming back, watching to see what their favorites, or the ones they considered their mortal enemies, will do next.
But you know who else NASCAR needs?
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It needs the good guys. It needs the blue-collar underdogs whose victories seem to come at a steeper price. The ones who didn’t have a famous last name or a father at the helm of a massive corporation. The ones who have scrapped for every position, every week, every year without a lot of fanfare. The ones who remind us that NASCAR can be a microcosm of the American dream.
The drivers every fan can get behind no matter who else they root for.
This past weekend at Daytona International Speedway, the good guys finished first. The race winners in both the NASCAR Cup and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series had a lot in common. Both started with family-owned teams. Both have raced in their respective series for a long time and show that they have the talent, if not the money, to win.
At long last, this time around, they did win.
First, Ryan Sieg, who still drives for his family-owned team, RSS Racing, finally took his first checkered flag in the O’Reilly Series. Sieg, the middle of three brothers, had come close before. He has a couple of top-10 points finishes in the O’Reilly Series and 82 top-10 race finishes in 422 starts.
His first win came in his 17th year racing in a NASCAR national series. Sieg raced through the death of his older brother Shane and runs alongside younger brother Kyle in the O’Reilly Series these days. Ryan Sieg had flirted with victory a few times before finally getting there this weekend, finally breaking through at 39, an age where many drivers are starting to consider hanging up their helmets. To put it in perspective, Sieg was more than twice the age that Connor Zilisch was when he won his first race in the series.
It was never a question of ability. It was a question of money. Sieg’s family team has to fight the likes of JR Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing every week for those finishes, teams with more money and resources than RSS can afford, even in a good year with good sponsors.
For all the crashes and mayhem it produces, Daytona is also an equalizer. Money can’t buy more oxygen for a restricted engine, so it’s up to the drivers to make the right moves at the right times and avoid the crashes that can take out many cars in a heartbeat.
Ryan Sieg is a NASCAR Winner at Last
Ryan Preece knows a thing or two about that.
Preece took a wild ride during the 2023 Coke Zero 400, getting airborne and spinning through the infield grass before flipping so violently that it broke blood vessels in his eyeballs. He had a second airborne crash in the 2025 Daytona 500.
But Saturday night, Preece made his peace with the World Center of Racing. In his 249th Cup start, Preece finally tasted the champagne in victory lane.
Preece, who came through the ranks from the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour where he was a champion at 22, had a taste of running for a big money team, making a handful of starts for JGR’s O’Reilly team. In 19 races, Preece won twice and finished in the top five 13 times.
It still wasn’t enough to land Preece a top ride, even in the O’Reilly Series. He drove in the Cup Series for JTG-Daugherty Racing and grabbed a handful of top 10s but never had a really competitive car. He drove for Stewart-Haas Racing in 2024, but the team was on the way out at that point and shuttered at the end of the year.
Preece signed on with RFK Racing last year and as the team improved, Preece’s finishes began to hint at the talent that had brought him the Modified title and the potential he showed at JGR. He won the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium earlier this year, showing raw emotion in the winner’s circle, but after a strong start to the year, suffered through some terrible luck, looking like he’d miss the Chase altogether.
Until Saturday. Preece told his team “Give me the ball” before the race, promising to carry them if they put their trust in him. And carry it he did, taking the lead on the final lap in overtime to not only secure the win, but also the final Chase spot.
That’s a long way from working on modifieds in his dad’s shop.
Two drivers named Ryan scored one for the good guys this weekend. Blue-collar drivers who have paid their dues and then some reminded fans what this sport is made of, where it came from.
Neither driver is likely to embark on a win streak so prolific that it makes fans resent them, and neither one is going to draw the ire of the field and fans a like for their questionable tactics. Sometimes drivers do everything right and don’t get a win. But sometimes, they shine.
The sport needs the good guys and at Daytona, it got them.
Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com’s Around the Track page.