Ryan Preece sat down, still catching his breath from the whirlwind start to his season with RFK Racing. Just months ago, Preece’s crew was a patchwork, hastily pieced together without even a crew chief. The NASCAR world watched with skepticism as teams built this quickly, usually sputtered, not surged. Yet, as Preece and his RFK teammates rolled into the heart of the season, there was an undercurrent of optimism that even outsiders could sense in the garage.

The pieces, hurriedly assembled under pressure, were starting to click in surprising ways. True, the journey had its share of friction and misunderstanding. But behind the scenes, something genuine was forming a camaraderie that only adversity, honest conversations, and a few hard lessons could forge. As the season barrels forward, the external doubts are slowly giving way to internal conviction at RFK Racing.

Ryan Preece’s chemistry forged under pressure.

Reflecting on the unpredictable but promising trajectory of the 2025 season, Ryan Preece credits the “late-built” chemistry at RFK Racing for its surprising competitiveness. Preece, who joined the team under circumstances far from conventional, opened up to Dale Earnhardt Jr. about how his crew was still being finalized into late January. “We didn’t have a crew chief until the end of January, uh, with Derek. It was the wildest thing,” he recalled, describing how the team was essentially built on the fly heading into the season opener at Daytona.

Yet that ragtag assembly is outperforming expectations. After a middling start to the season, including a 27th-place finish at the Daytona 500, Preece and the No. 41 team have steadily improved across spring and summer. In the last five points-paying races leading into August, Preece has posted three top-12 finishes, including an eighth-place run at New Hampshire and a strong sixth-place showing at Iowa Speedway, underscoring not just raw pace but the ability to execute clean, strategic races.

” I think the biggest thing is the support system that RFK’s had. Like we have a strength coach, and I enjoy the conversations that we have, and one of them is ‘love the process so the process can love you back’, and I live by that. ” Ryan explained on the Dale Jr. Download podcast. Behind those results lies a cultural shift powered by clear communication and mutual buy-in.

Preece illustrated this with a breakthrough moment in his working relationship with new crew chief Derek. “ I remember going into his office…….. Like I am just trying to explain what I need, and I remember looking at him and I can see this blank stare back, and I’m like ‘am I confusing you?’ And he looked at me and said ‘yes’. But I wanted that honesty, and from there on out, I was like ‘I’m doing more harm than I am good’. ” That honest exchange became a turning point, leading to better trust and less second-guessing.

This newfound harmony has allowed Preece to focus on execution and lean on the leadership of teammates Keselowski and Buescher. “I hold Chris to a pedestal… Chris is good at getting that extra bit of speed, and I’m trying to find where we can keep getting that,” Preece said. “Brad has been fast as shit lately, and just things haven’t worked out. But I think these next fourteen races… there’s an opportunity to win.”

The tracks ahead could play right into RFK’s current form. Preece singled out Iowa, a track where he scored a top 10, as well as Watkins Glen and Daytona, as circuits that suit their setups and driving styles. With 14 races remaining in the regular season, both wild-card tracks and short, technical ovals present real opportunities for RFK to steal a win or multiple wins.

Inside the garage, something deeper than just numbers fuels that hope. “We didn’t pick the team, the team picked us. And it’s just been easy to work with,” Preece said, echoing how personalities that might not have meshed on paper have clicked under pressure. Brent, the team engineer who joined from ThorSport and had zero prior experience with the Next Gen car, has also adapted remarkably quickly, further showing how RFK is maximizing untapped potential at every level. Dale Jr. summarized, impressed by how a scrambled lineup became a unified contending force seemingly overnight. But what is ahead for Ryan Preece and his team? Let’s take a look at it.

Ryan Preece and RFK are capitalizing on momentum in a pivotal stretch.

RFK Racing as a whole has found significant consistency. Teammate Brad Keselowski is currently 10th in the regular-season driver standings, while Chris Buescher sits in 14th. Both are ahead of Preece in points, but his recent results are closing the gap. In terms of team momentum, RFK is now the only multi-car organization outside the Hendrick and Gibbs camps to place all cars inside the top 20 in owner points at this stage of the season, something they hadn’t accomplished before in the Next Gen era.

The upcoming races are crucial not just for positioning but for performance confirmation. Watkins Glen (August 10), Richmond (August 16), and Daytona (August 23) are all tracks where RFK’s vehicles historically run well. Buescher claimed a top-5 at Glen in 2024, while RFK cars finished in the top 10 at Richmond in both races last year, and Preece narrowly missed a win at Daytona in the 2024 summer race, finishing fourth in a photo finish.

“For a car that doesn’t have track position and is starting 23rd, being able to finish fourth and execute it through strategy and restarts, that shows we have a really strong core. I feel like, ultimately, the finish was a good ending for us.” Ryan Preece said in a post-race interview in the Brickyard 400. Brad also expressed optimism over his team’s performance in the Brickyard by saying, ” Solid day for us. We were in a position. At certain points, we showed a lot of speed. We needed to catch a few breaks to win, which is normal for this race. We didn’t catch enough breaks, but we caught some good breaks to finish in the top five with both RFK cars.”

From a postseason qualification standpoint, Preece currently sits 19th in the driver standings, hovering just outside the playoff cutline. He trails the 16th-place cutoff by only 18 points heading into Iowa, making every stage point and finish between now and Daytona increasingly vital. RFK’s consistent pit execution has also played a critical role in gaining positions during green-flag cycles.

Equally important is the synergy between engineers, crew chiefs, and drivers that now allows consistent race-day adjustment planning. Since the team’s full lineup came together post-January, RFK has improved its average team finish from 19.8 (first five races) to 13.4 over the last five, a six-position swing that highlights their adaptability. Looking ahead, if Preece can continue trending inside the top 10 and capitalize on RFK’s upward form across midsummer ovals and plate tracks, the potential for making the playoffs is no longer hypothetical. The statistical improvements suggest this team may be peaking at just the right time, and with tracks like Michigan, Darlington, and Bristol still on the schedule, a surprise win for the No. 41 is far from off the table.