Preece said during media availability Wednesday in Las Vegas<\/a>. \u201cEvery situation is different and at the end of the day we\u2019re still racing for our team and the seasons that we still have going on. I didn\u2019t make the playoff format. In other forms of sports, when you\u2019re not in the playoffs, you\u2019re not playing.<\/p>\n\u201cWell, we\u2019re still playing. We\u2019re still a part of these races, so from a bigger picture standpoint within the Ford group, Joey and Ryan Blaney, we want the best for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
But there is a significant problem for the two Ford drivers, as well as others like Preece who is trying to support them: heading into Las Vegas, Logano \u2013 the defending champion and three-time Cup champ \u2013 is way behind the eight ball already.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s the last of the eight remaining playoff drivers, 24 points behind the cutoff line. In a sense, Logano has to make each of the next three races \u2013 Las Vegas, Talladega and Martinsville \u2013 must-win races to assure he\u2019ll be in the Championship 4 race at Phoenix Raceway on November 2.<\/p>\n
Blaney, on the other hand, who won the 2023 Cup championship, comes into this weekend second in the playoff standings, but he\u2019s only six points above the cutoff line.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want them to go to Phoenix and go get Ford another title, but, at the same time, going to Las Vegas, Talladega, Martinsville and Phoenix, we need to go capitalize for Jack, for the Fenway Group, for Brad and put ourselves in contention to win,\u201d Preece said. \u201cIf I just chose to ride around in 15th or 10th or whatever and not try to win the race, I wouldn\u2019t be doing myself justice, my family justice or the team justice. Every situation is different, but I didn\u2019t make this format, and I still have to race for my team.\u201d<\/p>\n
The key is to maintain a balance: work hard for a win for his team, but if that doesn\u2019t appear likely, he still has to do everything he can to help the two Team Penske drivers.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t know the situation you\u2019re gonna be in or not be in, so with that being said, it\u2019s really difficult to say what you\u2019re going to do in the moment because as a race car driver your number one focus is to win,\u201d Preece said. \u201cThat is our job, and how I approach a weekend from a racing perspective as a race car driver is to win and you adjust your goals accordingly throughout that event.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, I feel more prepared going into this Las Vegas race than I did earlier this season, so I\u2019m looking forward to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
But there is one key caveat that is omnipresent for Preece, or his RFK teammates Brad Keselowski or Chris Buescher. And that goes back to the whole balance thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not gonna wreck Joey Logano or Ryan Blaney or anybody to win, but if I\u2019m leading at the end of that race, I don\u2019t know,\u201d Preece said when asked what he\u2019d do in that situation. \u201cWhat am I gonna do, give up a win?<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, at the end of the day if any competitor is faster than me and they\u2019re able to beat me without me rolling over, then good for them. They won, but I\u2019m not gonna lift.\u201d<\/p>\n
But don\u2019t be surprised if Roger Penske or some high-ranking Ford officials have something to say about that if it impacts Logano or Blaney from reaching the championship-deciding race in the Valley of The Sun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryan Preece may not have either of his Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing teammates in the NASCAR Cup playoffs,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[9035,8657,655,425,37903,8656,55220,99,9991],"class_list":{"0":"post-210533","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-brad-keselowski","9":"tag-chris-buescher","10":"tag-joey-logano","11":"tag-nascar","12":"tag-roush-fenway-keselowski-racing","13":"tag-ryan-blaney","14":"tag-ryan-preece","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-team-penske"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}