Preece Surprises Cup Foes With Busch Pole At Richmond

Ryan Preece with the Busch Light Pole Award at Richmond Raceway. (Wyatt Tinsley/Motorsports Hotspot photo)

RICHMOND, Va. – With his NASCAR Cup Series playoff fate up in the air, Ryan Preece took a huge step toward cementing his status by earning the Busch Light Pole Award Friday evening at Richmond Raceway.

Driving the No. 60 Kleenex/Kroger Ford Mustang Dark Horse, Preece hustled around the three-quarter-mile Richmond oval in 22.244 seconds (121.381 mph) for his second career Cup Series pole and first in more than two years.

Prior to Richmond, Preece’s only other top qualifying effort at NASCAR’s premier level came April 15, 2023, at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway – appropriately, another short track frequented by the past NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion.

“That came down to great adjustments [after practice] by Derrick [Finley, crew chief] and everyone on this Kleenex Ford team. I can’t thank RFK enough for the opportunity I’ve had all season so far, and boy … what a racecar. It might not have showed up in practice with a fast lap, but it did in qualifying.”

The pole starting spot affords Preece prime real estate to start the penultimate race of the regular season, given that he’s the first driver on the outside of the provisional 16-driver playoff field.

Preece is battling his RFK teammate Chris Buescher for the bubble spot in the playoffs, entering Richmond 34 points back of Buescher in the race to make the postseason.

Joining Preece on the front row Saturday night is 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, who went out late in time trials, much like Preece did.

Unfortunately for Reddick, his No. 45 Chumba Casino Toyota Camry XSE fell .087 seconds shy of top honors in qualifying at 22.331 seconds (120.908 mph), but he wasn’t too disappointed in the outcome.

“I’m honestly really happy with that result,” admitted Reddick. “In practice I thought we were decent, but it was a little hard to read with where the caution fell for the [No.] 22 [of Joey Logano]. We made good gains throughout the day, so I’m proud of everyone at 23XI for working on it. On the long run, it seemed like the car was doing what I wanted, so we’ll find out tomorrow if that holds true.”

Kaulig Racing’s A.J. Allmendinger put in an impressive lap (22.341/120.854) to earn the third starting spot, with five-time Richmond winner Denny Hamlin rolling off fourth (22.347/120.822) for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott starts fifth, followed by RFK’s Brad Keselowski, 23XI’s Bubba Wallace, JGR’s Christopher Bell, Hendrick’s Alex Bowman, and Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell.

Notables starting deeper in the field include Buescher (12th), series point leader William Byron (14th), Chase Briscoe (19th), Ryan Blaney (20th), practice leader Kyle Busch (28th), and Kyle Larson (30th).

Logano hit the turn-three wall with a flat right-front tire roughly 10 minutes into Group-B of practice and, though he did get back onto the racetrack to attempt a lap, did not set a qualifying time after battling a tire rub that the team was unable to fully repair.

He’ll start from the rear of the 38-car field Saturday.

With just 38 entries, no one failed to qualify for the penultimate race of the Cup Series regular season.

Broadcast coverage of Saturday night’s Cook Out 400 is slated for 7:30 p.m. ET, live on USA, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.