Ryan Preece is the ultimate company man for JTG-Daugherty

Ryan Preece said he would without hesitation push teammate Chris Buescher to the win on Saturday at Daytona.

Ryan Preece is the consummate company man.

The first-year JTG-Daugherty Racing driver said on Friday that he is willing to put his team over his own selfish ambitions if it came down to it.

Just five months after coming up a restart short of possibly winning the Daytona 500, the 2013 Whelen Modified Tour champion says he would push teammate Chris Buescher to the checkered flag if they were running one-two in the closing laps of Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400.

Buescher is currently 22nd in the championship standings and Preece is 26th — both drivers likely in must-win scenarios.

Preece just wouldn’t want to do anything to cost both of them a chance to race for a championship.

“I’ll push Chris to win that race all day,” Preece said. “I don’t care. I mean, yeah, I want to win but I also want what is best for our organization. If me pushing him is going to sneak him into the playoffs, I will. Right now, they’re running really good.

“There are a lot of guys at our shop. There are bonuses from Tad and Jodi (Geschickter, team owners) for winning. If we could lock one of these two cars into the playoffs, that would be huge for the people in the shop. Guys, you don’t even see or know, that push hard during the week. I’ll do whatever is right by the organization.“

Preece finished eighth in the Daytona 500 in February but restarted fourth on an overtime finish, a series of self-described rookie blocking mistakes prevented him from racing for the win. And even though the Daytona 500 came down to only a handful of cars remaining at the finish, Preece believes he can replicate his performance on Saturday night.

“I would say that everybody has a shot when they come to these superspeedways,” Preece said. “I would say we had a Chevrolet that was capable of the right scenario and right situation of possibly winning the race.  But with the way the cars drive right now, they do drive a lot different from what I feel from the restrictor plates.

“Maybe others don’t feel that way, but I do.  So as long as we can keep making gains on the handling of our car, I definitely feel like we will have a shot at it for sure.”

It could offer a shot for himself or his teammate to qualify for the playoffs, too.  

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