Ryan Preece wins The Clash in sleet
and near-freezing temperatures
[February 05, 2026]
By JENNA FRYER
Ryan Preece outlasted sleet, a wet track and a record number of
cautions to win The Clash in near-freezing temperatures at Bowman
Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
The Wednesday night exhibition was the first victory at the top Cup
Series level for Preece, who drives a Ford for RFK Racing. The event
had originally been scheduled for Sunday but was twice postponed
because of snow that blanketed the state.
Preece joins Jeff Gordon and Denny Hamlin as drivers who won The
Clash before ever winning a points-paying race. He will now take
momentum into Daytona International Speedway for next week's
season-opening Daytona 500.
Weather dramatically disrupted the 200-lap event and NASCAR called a
break just after the halfway point because it began sleeting over
the stadium. NASCAR ordered cars to the pits to put on wet-weather
Goodyear tires, and the cars returned to the track with the
designated tires, but many drivers complained of visibility issues
between the sleet and the glare of the lights.
The cars briefly returned to the pits, the sleet stopped, and they
went back to a wet track. But as soon as the race went green, Hamlin
slid into pole-sitter Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch was also collected.
From there, it was spin after spin as the race dragged on so long
that cars began running out of fuel and past Fox's allotted
broadcast window, forcing the remaining 35 laps to be aired on
cable. NASCAR allowed the cars to go back to the pits for fuel at
the same time coverage left Fox.
The race ranked as one of the coldest in NASCAR history with
temperatures hovering around freezing — especially when it began
sleeting.
Preece, who has clawed his way through the ranks of NASCAR from a
background racing modifieds in the Northeast, was in tears as he
celebrated. He's been on NASCAR's national scene since 2013 but is
only starting his seventh full season of competition at the Cup
level.
“Two years ago I didn't think I had a job — I thought I was going
back to Connecticut,” Preece said. “I'm super, super, super
emotional.”
Preece ran only two races in 2022, spent the next two seasons with
Stewart-Haas Racing, but was out of a seat when that team folded
after the 2024 season.
He was picked up by RFK Racing, the team co-owned by fellow driver
Brad Keselowski, ahead of 2025 and was arguably the top performer
for the organization.
In 223 starts since 2015, Preece has 30 top-10 finishes.
“It's been a (expletive) long road, and it's The Clash, but man,
it's just been years and years of grinding,” said Preece, who
thanked Keselowski.
“This is as much as a mental game as it as anything and I felt
pretty beat up,” Preece said. “We had a couple of restarts go our
way and then before you know it you're in the first two rows and
then the claws come out.”
William Byron finished second and was followed by Ryan Blaney and
Daniel Suarez in his debut race for Spire Motorsports. Hamlin was
fifth.
Bowman Gray hosted The Clash for the second consecutive year. It was
held at Daytona International Speedway for 43 years from its
inception in 1979 through 2021, then moved for three seasons to a
temporary track inside Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
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Ryan Preece celebrates in Victory Lane after winning NASCAR's The
Clash preseason auto race, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in
Winston-Salem, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)
Larson, the reigning Cup Series champion, started
from the pole alongside Hendrick Motorsports teammate Byron, the
two-time defending Daytona 500 winner.
Hamlin, who had an emotionally traumatic roller
coaster of an offseason, started sixth in his first time in a car
since he dramatically lost the Cup title in November. Hamlin
revealed before the race that he reinjured a torn labrum that was
surgically repaired ahead of the 2025 season when he slipped in the
debris from the December house fire that killed his father and
critically injured his mother.
He said he'd hold off on repairing it until the end of this upcoming
season.
“I don’t think that it ever healed properly,” Hamlin said. “Took a
little fall at my mom’s house, going through all the rubble and
stuff, and just didn’t feel right. Got it rescanned and re-tore it
again.”
Last chance qualifying
Josh Berry and Austin Cindric claimed the final two spots in The
Clash by finishing 1-2 in the last chance qualifying heat.
Berry ran away with the win in the heat race in the No. 21 for Wood
Brothers Racing, a team affiliated with Team Penske. Cindric had a
much tougher task as he raced side-by-side for over 15 laps with
Corey Lajoie for the second transfer position.
Lajoie was the injury replacement driver for Keselowski, co-owner of
RFK Racing, who is healing from a broken leg suffered in a fall in
December. He held his own against fellow Ford driver Cindric, in a
Penske entry, as the two jostled back-and-forth for second.
As the drivers came to the checkered flag, AJ Allmendinger gave
Cindric a shove in the hopes of moving both Cindric and Lajoie out
of his way so that Allmendinger could take the final spot. The move
instead pushed Cindric firmly ahead of Lajoie for the final spot in
the 200-lap Clash at the historic short track.
Among those who missed making the field for The Clash were Ricky
Stenhouse Jr. and Todd Gilliland, who both spent a day this week
shoveling snow out of the grandstands at Bowman Gray to help NASCAR
prepare the facility.
Up next
Teams report to Daytona International Speedway next week for the
Daytona 500 on Feb. 15. Qualifying for the pole is next Wednesday
and the rest of the field will be set via a pair of Thursday races.
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