How do you feel when you are left out of a group chat? It seems Ryan Preece might be going through a similar situation right now! When the racer joined Stewart-Haas Racing in 2022, he was driven. After a three-year stint with JTG Daugherty Racing, he lacked the internal funding to get back into the Cup Series. So, Tony Stewart expressed faith in his championship caliber and took him in. But even after two years of driving for SHR, it seems Preece still feels a little disconnected from the others.

After veteran drivers Kevin Harvick and Aric Almirola left, SHR has been fumbling for direction. Along with a dearth of laudable finishes, rumors of Stewart selling the team’s charter are also doing the rounds. Amidst this chaos, the team is trying its best to glue itself back together with group plans. However, it seems Ryan Preece might not be a part of his team’s grand scheme of things. 

Tony Stewart’s driver is distraught with the team’s negligence

The 2024 Cup season is panning out badly for Ryan Preece, with no win in sight. On top of that, mid-race engine failures are getting on his nerves. Preece suffered his first DNF and worst season finish at Dover Motor Speedway due to a slip-up of the No. 41 team. A faulty set-up filled his car with smoke, and Preece had to park the car for fear of last year’s Daytona horror repeating that saw his vehicle somersault almost half a dozen times. 

Even though crew chief Drew Blickensderfer owned up to his mistake, Preece said they “could have…prevented”, finishing 37th. But, as things currently stand, Preece has even more reason to be mad at Tony Stewart’s team now. The incident unfolded when Toby Christie tweeted about a supposed SHR study group constituting of team drivers, Noah Gragson, Chase Briscoe, and Josh Berry ahead of the race at Kansas Speedway. Surprisingly, the group that will look into “studying data and techniques in order to improve their speed”, had no mention of Ryan Preece’s name. 

So, it wasn’t long before the #41 SHR driver decided to comment on the supposed snub by tweeting, “Study group that I wasn’t aware of 🤷🏻‍♂️”. However, that wasn’t the end! 

Later on Monday, Preece further expanded on his stance regarding the situation in an interview with Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. “I was actually sitting in our post-practice qualifying, and I saw that. I thought it was interesting because I’m a driver that’s actually at Stewart-Haas Racing pretty much every day of the week, and I was there at 7 AM today. I had no idea,” Preece said.

Furthermore, the driver also doled out his complaints about being the odd one out in Tony Stewart’s team meetings, saying, “Obviously, I found that out when I saw that tweet…so I was a little frustrated at the time. Because I feel like as a race car driver, not only in the Cup Series and SHR but racing in general…I’m always trying to outwork everybody in all aspects.”

Interestingly all three drivers in the study group outperformed Preece in the race on Sunday in Kansas. Noah Gragson finished in the 9th spot, while Josh Berry and Chase Briscoe ended up 15th and 21 respectively. On the other hand, Preece finished at 28th. Even in the qualifying, the drivers had finished in the top 20 while Preece ended up in the 32nd spot.

Yet on a positive note, Preece notified of a good development in this matter. “Needless to say, I found out that they’re Tuesdays after our meeting, and I’ll be there tomorrow.” Preece will hope his involvement in the sessions will help him to improve his struggling performances.

Despite Preece’s FOMO in Stewart-Haas Racing’s plans, his teammate Chase Briscoe sanctions the changed atmosphere in the team this year.

Briscoe feels “more confident” in the new team culture

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Ever since racing heavyweights, Harvick and Almirola, left Tony Stewart’s fold, things have not been the same. The winning flavor is yet to spice things up again for the 22-year-old team. Last year they had zero wins to their name and the recent study group sessions may have been an attempt to resurrect the team’s fortunes.

Rookie Josh Berry is feeling the pressure, piloting the iconic No. 4 car which was previously wielded by 2014 Cup champion Kevin Harvick. But No. 98 driver Chase Briscoe feels more relieved in the absence of the veterans. “I feel like I definitely can use my voice and kind of be more of a leader. And I feel more confident in that, too,” he said, while adding, “So you put all that together and you have four guys now that just have a lot to prove. We only have one win between the four of us. So we all are super hungry to go out there and prove what we can do.”

While Briscoe’s confidence is tough to beat, his results haven’t really set him apart as the driver has struggled to even make it to the Top 5 in 2024. With the highest finish of P6 at Texas, it seems the senior-most driver at SHR needs to do more to be called a leader within the team. Having said that, Josh Berry also seems to be struggling with the lack of a Top 10 and a highest finish of P11 at Richmond. On a surprising note, out of all the three, 25-year-old Noah Gragson has shown a bit of promise with five Top-10s and one Top 5 at Talladega.

And when it comes to Ryan Preece, even his performances have been sort of hit-and-miss. With one Top 10 at Martinsville, it seems there’s a long way to go for the #41 driver.

Hopefully, the study group will give the drivers that much-needed push and, hopefully, results. What do you think?