When your rivals call you a Man of Steel, you certainly have something special. Ryan Preece boasts that moniker in the NASCAR Cup Series garage. It originated unconventionally, after Preece survived two harrowing crashes in Daytona – one in August 2023 and one this year in February. As it turns out, Preece’s resilience extends to more than just his physical hardiness.

The No. 60 Ford driver is presently a powerful contender in NASCAR’s top echelon. After a top-five finish at the Brickyard 400, Ryan Preece multiplied his fan base. However, this Cup Series driver’s beginnings were humble and modest. He rocketed from there via sheer determination – something that runs in his family.

Ryan Preece accepted the challenges headfirst

Sounds like his crashes in Daytona, right? During the 2025 Daytona 500, Ryan Preece’s car flew through the air upon contact with Christopher Bell’s No. 20. When it touched the ground, it flipped a few times before finally stopping. Despite the dangerous risk he faced, Preece brushed it off and went on to clinch 9 top tens and 2 top fives this season. That ability to perform in adversity dates back to his childhood. Preece started racing in 2007 and dabbled in the NASCAR Whelen Modified until 2013. At the same time, he worked in his father’s plumbing business, fabricating ductwork as a tin knocker or climbing on rooftops during winter. Eventually, that was not enough to sponsor his ultimate ambition of reaching the Cup Series.

So, Ryan Preece carved out his own path. In a recent Dale Jr. Download episode, the RFK Racing driver reflected on his decision to stop taking his family’s help. He said, “Well, I saw the financial burden that it was. My father has a HVAC company, a mechanical contracting company in Connecticut… As you know, racing’s expensive. I didn’t want my father or my family to go broke because we were racing…We could race Modifieds, but we weren’t going to be able to go do ARCA or K&N East or Xfinity…I wanted to figure it out for myself at that point…I think I said separating from my father, but I wanted to find my own way.”

All of that worked out, as Ryan Preece won in the Craftsman Truck Series and Xfinity. What he fondly treasures, though, is his father’s lessons in tough love. That is what got him through the Stewart-Haas Racing shutdown and also the Daytona crashes. Preece reflected on his father’s attitude: “He was very…old-school. That’s the way he had to do it, so that’s the way I was gonna do it. His father didn’t build him a race car, he had to do it himself – and that’s the way he raised me…I was at New Smyrna, I was 15 years old…they were replacing something after one night, I wrecked the race car. And he saw me sitting there and said, ‘Pick up trash.’ He didn’t want to see me sitting there watching everyone else work. So he made me work.”

Ryan Preece may have distanced himself from his family’s help, but he still carries their ideals with him. That is helping him clinch success on a weekly basis in NASCAR races, like in Indianapolis.

Living up to his goal

At this time last year, Ryan Preece was not in a good position. Stewart-Haas Racing was wrapping up its operations after a 16-year run in the NASCAR Cup Series, and the team’s employees were strapped for security. While his teammates got new roles easily, Preece was left in a vacuum. Fans speculated about whether he would scale down to an Xfinity role, as his stats in SHR were not good either. However, Brad Keselowski threw him a lifeline, and that was probably the best decision he made. Preece is one of the top-performing Ford drivers at present, as he showed at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Ryan Preece rolled off from a 23rd-place starting spot. He dodged all the wrecks and mishaps that unfolded during the Brickyard 400 and masterfully maneuvered his No. 60 Ford. What resulted was a beautifully fetched 4th-place finish. It was the result of Preece’s conscious goal, laid before the race: “I think it’s going to be incredibly difficult to pass, so just going to have to figure out a way to get it. Ultimately, you can have a 30th-place car on speed. And if somehow the cycle or the pit strategy works for you, you can end up with a really good day… Whatever gives you the most track position with a full tank of fuel in that last run is what you’re going to want.”

Eventually, Preece could expertly handle his fuel tank through the race. With his stats looking bright already, we can only imagine the future that Preece is building for himself.