NASCAR Drivers Joey Logano and Ryan Preece Go Way Back
Joey Logano and Ryan Preece crossed racing paths years ago, and those paths are crossing again.
NASCAR drivers Joey Logano and Ryan Preece go way back, and Logano has at least one photo to prove it. He tweeted that evidence on April 14 during the race weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee. Preece retweeted the photo.
Logano and Preece don’t go head-to-head every race weekend these days. Logano is a regular in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, while Preece continues his climb up the ladder to NASCAR’s premier series as a part-time driver for Joe Gibbs Racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. It just so happens, Logano began his NASCAR national-level career with JGR, first in the Xfinity Series, and then, the Cup Series before making the move to Team Penske ahead of the 2013 season.
Logano occasionally makes return visits to the Xfinity Series for a race here and there, but he wasn’t in the Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 at Bristol on April 14. He wasn’t allowed, as NASCAR has a ban on Cup Series drivers in Xfinity races that are a part of the Xfinity Dash 4 Cash program. Preece was, though, and he won not only the race but the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus.
Logano may not have been in the Xfinity race at Bristol, but he did participate, sort of, as one of the broadcasters on the live TV broadcast of the race on Fox Sports 1, on which he was able to congratulate his old friend on a second-career Xfinity Series win.
The two 27-year-old Connecticut natives took somewhat different routes to where they are now, with Preece going the modified route and Logano making the move down south to Georgia to race late models with hopes of getting to NASCAR. Actually, the Logano family made the move because that’s where sister Danielle needed to be to seriously pursue an ice-skating career, but Logano's budding racing career made the move seemlessly.
Anyway, Logano and Preece are both in NASCAR now, albeit just part-time in Preece’s case, and primarily in different series. But considering Preece is winning races with limited seat time, a full-time ride with Joe Gibbs Racing is, surely, on the horizon. He does, after all, have two wins and has yet to finish an Xfinity Series race outside the top-10 in his seven races with JGR in the last two seasons. Then, success in the Xfinity Series will surely lead to a promotion to Cup.
And there you have it, two Connecticut boys, back together again.
