Ryan Preece wins the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race at Martinsville Speedway

Since then, Preece has moved up the racing ranks and now drives in the NASCAR Cup Series, but on Thursday, in a return to his roots, he once again raced a modified car at Martinsville Speedway and won another big time. father.

Preece led throughout the final green flag race to win Thursday’s Virginia Is For Racing Lovers 200 by nearly a half-lap over second-place finisher Justin Bonsignore.

The victory was emotional for Preece for several reasons.

“Most people, when you’re at Cup level and you go down and win, you probably wouldn’t see that much emotion, but I put a lot of effort into my race,” Preece said during a press conference after the competition. race. “I looked at my wife three days ago and said, man, the amount of detail I put into my race car and the time I put into it, I knew two years ago or three weeks it was going to be a lot of work, but I put a lot into it.

A late caution prompted a restart with about 20 laps remaining. Preece took the lead on the restart and took more and more of a lead as the laps dropped.

“I just didn’t want to give Justin the opportunity to pass me in Turn 2,” he said. “Usually I feel bad because for the fans, they come here to watch us race and fight for the last lap, but when you have a race car that fast, I just want to punch them. I want to go away and show how fast a race car we really had. It’s just hard work.

“When you have a race car that fast and that dominant, you just want to show it.”

Patrick Emerling, Matt Hirschman and Tyler Rypkema finished third, fourth and fifth.

“It’s not easy to win at any level, especially these guys,” Preece said. “Justin Bonignore, Ronnie Silk, there are a lot of great riders in this series. It’s 200 rounds, anything can happen. You have to make flawless pit stops, you have to do everything right to get through the pack.

NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby Labonte finished 10th. Former NASCAR Cup Series regular Ryan Newman finished 11th.

Andy Seuss, a former Riggs Racing driver from Martinsville who had members of the Riggs team working his pits, was as high as third early in the race, but a problem on pit road following a midway caution -path forced him to take a turn. broke down, and he eventually left the race on lap 137 due to a faulty clutch. He ends the day 27.

The last time Preece won at Martinsville was due to a disqualification, so he wasn’t able to celebrate in victory lane, meaning the chance to stand on stage next to his new trophy was even more gentle the second time. Preece said he felt better knowing he dominated and was able to kiss the grandfather clock he won.

“I never got a chance to celebrate,” he said. “I have a grandfather clock, but I finished second that day. Today we dominated. We won.”

Standing on stage, Preece realized that the last time he was in victory lane in a modified car was at Richmond Raceway in 2001. That same day, the car’s good friend and owner of Preece, Ed Partridge, has died. Preece told the crowd in victory lane that this victory was for Ed.

Thursday’s race was won in the same car as Richmond’s. Preece bought the car from Partridge’s wife.

Ron Silk entered Thursday’s season finale race and needed to finish eighth or better to win the 2023 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship.

Silk, a two-time Tour champion, finished the season with five victories and 15 top-5 finishes in 18 races.

“It’s awesome. A lot of effort goes into it,” Silk said of the championship. “It’s been a long season. It was a bit of a weird race tonight, knowing the scenario…I kind of tried to keep myself in a decent position most of the night. I turned around once on the backstretch, but luckily didn’t hit anything.

“Like I said, it takes a lot of work… It’s really rewarding to get another one.”

The 40-year-old from Norwalk, Conn., has been competing on the Modified circuit since 2003. Thursday was his 250th career start.

He said his second championship was about more than just driving skills.

“The first thing you have to do is have fast cars and a good team behind you, which I did. I’ve had it all year,” he said. “And you also have to have a lot of luck to get through. It doesn’t take too many missteps to find yourself too far behind.

Bonsignore, who also had five wins and 15 top-five finishes this season, finished second in the tour standings. Austin Beers finished third.

Silk led Bonsignore by 13 points heading into Thursday’s race.

NASCAR Hall of Famer Donnie Allison drove a 1967 Wood Brothers Racing car in the honorary pace car lap before Thursday’s race.

This is the same modified car that Allison drove to win at Martinsville Speedway in 1967.

“Modifieds is where I started in my early days,” Allison said in a release of the track. “You know, it was quite an honor to be asked to drive the 21st Wood Brothers car at Martinsville back in the day… This race is going to bring back a lot of memories. For me, it’s quite an honor for them to ask me to do it this year as a NASCAR Hall of Famer, and it’s especially gratifying because it’s in the exact same car that I driving in 1967. I finished second in the 100 laps. raced my brother Bobby (Allison) and I won the Cardinal 300. It was a special win.

Allison said he drove the car out of the Wood Brothers store, located in Stuart, earlier this week.

Another pace car running alongside Allison was a modified car formerly driven by Ray Hendrick, nicknamed “The Flying 11.”