Ricky Stenhouse Jr and Ryan Preece Prove Their Worth to JTG Daugherty Racing

As per reports, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ryan Preece will be out of a contract at the end of this season. However, they can be glad that they have performed decently for JTG Daugherty Racing. Naturally, the two of them are approaching JTG for contract negotiations and will hope that the team considers them.

This weekend Stenhouse heads into the Cup race at Sonoma Raceway, 62 points adrift of the playoff spots. On the bright side, he is banging in impressive results, and has vastly improved in the last four years. It is worth noting that Stenhouse Jr is going beyond his car’s capabilities. He also has a Production in Equal Equipment Rating (PEER) of 1.333, which is able to negate his poor restarting numbers.

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“I feel like we’ve actually met a lot of our goals, as far as being consistent, not making mistakes on pit road, things like that, that I felt like held us back last year,” said Stenhouse. “I believe in everything we’re doing right now, full confidence in everybody that we’re going to continue to build this race team up. And, you know, I don’t think we’re done this year. Our best races are in front of us.”

Aside from Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Ryan Preece is also working hard

While all this is going on, Preece is in a far more serious fight, one for his NASCAR future. This is because Preece’s car only has funding for 24 races and he is hunting for sponsors to keep him on the grid. Naturally, he needs to use these 24 races to deliver excellent performances and improve his chances of sticking around.

It is worth mentioning that his PEER ranking is better than the likes of Ryan Newman, Erik Jones and Daniel Suárez. He was even ahead of two of the Stewart-Haas Racing drivers. Admittedly, he seems to revel at 750-horsepower tracks and on road courses. This was evident at Daytona and at the Circuit of the Americas.

Obviously, both Stenhouse and Preece need to succeed in the team to stand a chance of staying in the Cup Series. Their individual performances will go a long way in boosting their chances in the free-agent market. For now, they will focus on the coming race weekend at the Sonoma Raceway.