“My expectations are high. They’ve always been high, I don’t ever set a bar low.” These words demonstrate the unbeatable confidence that Ryan Preece had ahead of 2025. RFK Racing signed up Tony Stewart’s dark horse in late November for the No. 60 Ford entry. Landing a major sponsor in Kroger for a car that Joey Hand wheeled to a 4th-place finish in Chicago, Ryan Preece brought a storm of doubts. Fans scoffed at Preece who was a passing afterthought in the Stewart-Haas Racing fold.

But then 2025 happened. Now it seems like Ryan Preece’s sole purpose is to smash all possible doubts about him. From multiple DNFs in 2024 to consecutive top-ten finishes in 2025, he is living up to Brad Keselowski’s lofty expectations. What is more, a NASCAR expert signals a bright future ahead for the Ford star.

A few years ago, Ryan Preece regularly fumbled at the back of the Cup Series field. He spent three seasons amounting to nothing much in JTG Daugherty Racing. Then at Stewart-Haas, he was the neglected driver in the four-driver line-up last year. His teammates even confessed to attending a group study that omitted Preece.

As SHR crumbled all around them, people pinned their hopes on the likes of Chase Briscoe and others finding good rides. As for Preece, most thought he would probably move down to a lower series. However, Brad Keselowski expressed faith in him. The 2025 season is already 8 races through, and Preece is leading all of his earlier SHR teammates.

Currently, Ryan Preece stands 13th in the championship standings. As Tony Stewart’s neglected star treads on a golden path, NASCAR expert Eric Estepp cannot help but look back at his previous years. “I remember last year RFK Racing announced they had signed Ryan Preece to a third car…There was a lot of pushback online from fans who said, ‘Hey, what has he done?’…Before this year, Ryan Preece had never consistently been in a good Cup Series car. He drove that 41 car at the tail end of Stewart-Haas Racing’s lifetime. At best, that was a 15th-20th place car…And JTG Daugherty back in the day was never very competitive.”

Lo and behold! Ryan Preece collected three back-to-back top-tens, including a remarkable 3rd-place finish in Las Vegas. He broke that streak at Darlington, but still started magnificently for the ‘Lady in Black.’ Estepp continued, “He’s right on the heels of his RFK Racing teammate Chris Buescher, who has won five Next-Gen races…Ryan Preece just scored three consecutive top-ten finishes. That streak was snapped, unfortunately, at Darlington. But he still showed flashes – qualified 2nd, front row starting spot, earned 8 stage points. Go back to Phoenix…they used tire strategy to win a stage. He’s got a playoff point to his credit. So far so good. Ryan Preece to RFK is working out pretty well if you ask me.”

Explaining their strategy to expand their team, Keselowski had revealed, “I think about two years ago we looked at this and said this was critical to our future and to our success. And we began the path of saying ‘well, how do we get there? We can’t just turn on a third team overnight. We had a lot of discussions with some of our partners, we handpicked certain races for the 2024 season, and we moved around key personnel that would position us to be able to execute from four or five races in 2024. And then we were able to take that infrastructure that was slowly built during 2024 that gave us the bones of a team and pitched that to partners and bring in a blue chip brand like Kroger that helped us expand to a full-time three car team. So I look at that and I feel like we got there very intentionally, and we were able to obviously add a full-time driver in Ryan Preece and some more talent to the company and team over the last four to six months.”

All this resulted from the deep faith that Brad Keselowski had in Ryan Preece. The RFK Racing team owner confessed that he expected this hot streak all along.

Capitalizing on the talent

As Eric Estepp mentioned, Ryan Preece had seldom worked with good equipment. Brad Keselowski, on the other hand, went over and beyond to ensure Preece’s ride would be contention-worthy. RFK Racing’s expansion was part of a thorough, deliberate process that took two years. That involved entering the No. 60 Ford for select starts and moving around key personnel. Pitching to many sponsors, Keselowski was also able to rope in a blue-chip brand like Kroger. Derrick Finley, the No. 60 team crew chief, was introduced only in January. Ryan Preece did not have a lot of time on his hands to adjust to his new team. Yet the driver is already living up to the expectations of his team owner.

What is more, Brad Keselowski is not surprised that Ryan Preece is hounding the leaders in the championship standings. After Preece secured a 7th-place finish at Martinsville, Keselowski said, “I hesitate to say I’m surprised. I thought a lot of Ryan before he came here, and I’m not surprised by his success,” Keselowski said. “I’m happy for it and excited that he’s doing all the things we thought he could do. I think he can do even more than he’s done so far. I think he can win races. And we’re pushing him to get to that spot — and that’s more than just him, by the way. It’s the whole team, and they’re responding very well.”

Evidently, Ryan Preece has turned over a new leaf this season. With good finishes and front-row starts lining up so often, a Cup Series victory seems only a corner away.