Mohawk Northeast Racing: Ryan Preece Watkins Glen Advance

●  Sunday’s race will mark Preece’s 22nd career Cup Series road-course start. Best among his previous 21 outings was his ninth-place finish from the sixth starting position in the February 2021 race on the Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway road course behind the wheel of a JTG Daugherty Racing entry. In addition to his three Xfinity Series starts at The Glen, Preece has three other road-course outings in the series, best of those coming on the Charlotte Roval in September 2018 when he started 10th and finished fourth. Preece’s best career road-course outing was a dominating one in the June 2023 ARCA Menards Series West race at Sonoma, where he drove the No. 9 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford to victory from the pole, leading 50 of 64 laps along the way to crossing the finish line more than 9 seconds ahead of runner-up Sammy Smith. The native of Berlin, Connecticut, made his professional road-course debut in the July 2010 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race on his home track, Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut, where he started seventh and finished fourth. It was his only road-course outing in 174 career starts on the Tour, where he won the 2013 championship and finished runner-up in 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2015.

●  Mohawk Northeast adorns Preece’s No. 41 Ford Mustang Dark Horse this weekend at The Glen. A longtime supporter of Preece, Mohawk is one of the premier heavy-civil contractors in the Northeast. The corporation has been providing the highest-quality construction services to a wide variety of clients. Specializing in heavy highway, railroad, movable and fixed bridges and marine construction, Mohawk has completed countless projects within industry safely, on time and within budget. Mohawk can self-perform all phases of construction, including electrical, mechanical, structural steel repair and erection, deep foundations, pier and bulkheads, fabrication and coating (AISC & SSPC Certified) and a wide range of marine services. With an extensive fleet of cranes, barges, offshore tugboats and many other pieces of heavy equipment, Mohawk is a well-established leader in heavy civil construction. Clients include the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, USACE, General Dynamics – Electric Boat, Connecticut DOT, Massachusetts DOT, New York DOT, Metro North Railroad, Amtrak, and various private sector clients.

“From a road-racing perspective, I’ve always enjoyed it. It’s always been something I like to do and I’ve always had kind of a knack for it when we get to the races. So when I show up to Watkins Glen, or some of these other places like Sonoma where I feel like we have an opportunity to have a good day, I feel pretty optimistic and I think we could be really good. I didn’t run Formula 1, IndyCar or V8 Supercars, but it’s always something I’ve enjoyed because of my short-track background – heavy braking and the downshifting, all those little things you do as a racecar driver. The road-course races are ones I look forward to being aggressive and having good days. I’m ready to have a good day at Watkins Glen. I’ve had some good runs there in the past in the Xfinity Series and would love to pull one off this weekend.”

Watkins Glen is part of the 10-race playoffs for the first time this year. Does that have any bearing on how you approach this weekend’s race compared to previous years there?

“I think you’ve got to be respectful, for sure, but at the same time our team has a job to do. We have nine more races and more opportunities to have respectable and great days, so obviously that’s our focus and what we want to do, and hopefully we can have really, good, quiet days.”

Tire wear seems to be an area of concern among competitors heading into this next series of races on the schedule. What are your expectations on that front this weekend?

“Tire wear is the topic, and in many aspects of racing, that could be a good thing or a bad thing for you. It just depends on how you target and choose to go about the weekend. Obviously, most know, going to Watkins Glen or going to Bristol, your speed has to be relatively respectable, but I think your long run is what’s going to give you a good race. And how you choose to go about that, whether it’s us as a driver trying to take care of what we’ve got, or the setup in the racecar that allows you to not beat on the tire and really help longevity in the long run, I think there is definitely going to be a lot of strategy when it comes to these next few weeks.”

What are the challenges of racing at Watkins Glen, and what is the importance of practice and qualifying there?
“Practice is really key for us. I didn’t necessarily grow up road racing, so it’s really important. Track position is always a topic, right? There are some things that we worked on in the Ford Performance sim to be able to prepare. But for a driver, it’s getting out there and doing it – the visuals and a lot of the braking marks that you tend to get. I mean, when you think about it, how many laps are we really going to get in practice? I think nine, 10 laps, maybe. So, it’s going to be extremely important to get everything we have out of the racecar and qualify really well.”