At Michigan, Pair Of SHR Teammates Find The Top Dozen

Noah Gragson (10) was the best of the Stewart-Haas Racing drivers at Michigan Int'l Speedway. (HHP/Jim Fluharty photo)

BROOKLYN, Mich. – Noah Gragson and Ryan Preece both netted top-12 finishes in the FireKeepers Casino 400, carrying the banner for Stewart-Haas Racing Monday afternoon at Michigan Int’l Speedway.

Preece’s afternoon was quiet but steady, as he looks to further build his resume amid a continued job search. The Connecticut native is the final SHR driver who has yet to find a home for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.

“I think it was a good ending. I didn’t think we were going to finish 11th today,” said Preece after the race. “I thought if everything went our way, maybe we could’ve finished 16th, 17th, so [the end result] was a net gain for us.

“Certainly, [as a team] we have some strengths. We’ve made gains, we’ve just got to continue to make gains on those weak areas, but I feel like we’re getting closer,” he added. “Hopefully, these final 12 races we can finish out on a positive note.”

This year, Preece has seen his fair share of struggles, with large fluctuations in his results. Prior to Michigan, Preece had finished outside the top 25 in his last four races, going back to a fourth at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway in June.

Ryan Preece's crew services his car on pit road Monday at Michigan Int'l Speedway. (HHP/David Graham photo)

It hasn’t been pretty for the 33-year-old, but his No. 41 team has focused lately on bringing more speed to the track. Preece started 26th at Michigan due to a rain-cancelled qualifying session, then jumped to 11th by the end of the race.

Monday afternoon was Preece’s second top 12 of the season, breaking his recent skid. Altogether, it marked his seventh top 15 of the season and second such result at Michigan.

Gragson also came from the back of the field and finished near the front at Michigan, starting 25th and rolling forward to 12th by race’s end.

The Las Vegas native, who will join Front Row Motorsports’ Cup Series team next year, ran Saturday’s Xfinity Series race with Rette Jones Racing in an attempt to build a notebook for the Cup race.

He and Corey LaJoie made contact on the back straightaway on lap 136, but Gragson’s No. 10 remained steady and largely unaffected, while LaJoie went airborne and flipped.

The Las Vegas, Nev., native continued on from that incident to run around 15th and put himself in position to finish well.

“I got kind of lucky there with that caution in overtime at the end and put tires on. It was a good rebound. We just struggled with the balance all day,” Gragson said. “It was super tight, and then we got on the other side of it, and it started getting loose.”

Gragson ultimately recorded his 12th top 15 of the season, as well as his fifth top 20 in the last six races.

“We kind of struggled all weekend,” Gragson said of his car’s performance. “We’ll go back to the shop, look over everything and see where we can make gains, and figure out how to be better for the future.”

The Stewart-Haas teammates will look to continue their momentum gained from Michigan on the high banks of Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway Saturday night, Aug. 24.

As an organization, SHR has three wins at the World Center of Racing, but the most recent of those came during the 2017 Daytona 500 with the now-retired Kurt Busch.

SHR has struggled a bit at Daytona as of late, with just four top-10 finishes in the past two years, so Preece and Gragson will be looking to help right the ship at the iconic 2.5-mile superspeedway.

Coverage of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona is scheduled for Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. ET, live on NBC, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.