Early career Preece began racing in 2007 and became 32nd in the championship in the
Northeastern Midget Association with the Bertrand team. A year later he finished on the podium for the first time in his career with a third place finish at
Monadnock in his only Northeastern Midget race that year. Preece competed in and won the championship in the SK Modified Series in 2011 at
Stafford Motor Speedway, while his future wife, Heather, was the series' Rookie of the Year.
Whelen Modified Tour That same year, Preece got his first career victory in the
Whelen Modified Tour after dominating the Made In America Whelen 300 at
Martinsville. In 2009 and 2012, he was runner-up in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, but he became champion in 2013 with four wins in fourteen races driving for Flamingo Motorsports, owned by Eric Sanderson. In 2014, he returned to the team and won the last two races of the year, coming home in second place in the final standings. In 2015, he drove for TS Haulers Racing, owned by Ed Partridge. On November 24, 2016, it was announced that Preece would remain at
JD Motorsports for another full season in 2017. However, on December 8, 2016, it was announced that Preece and JD Motorsports had parted ways, letting Preece explore other opportunities. The primary reason why Preece left JD is that he wanted to be on a team to win races and expected to be back in the Whelen Modified Tour in 2017. He rejoined Partridge's team in the Modified Tour.
Xfinity Series 2013–2017 in 2016 Preece made his debut in the
Nationwide Series in
2013 and finished 24th at
Loudon driving the No. 8
Chevrolet Camaro for
Tommy Baldwin Racing. In
2014, he drove two races driving the No. 36 Camaro for TBR at
Loudon and
Homestead, with a best finish of fourteenth. in 2016 On August 8, 2015, Preece announced he would make his
NASCAR Cup Series debut for TBR at Loudon. Preece joined
JD Motorsports full-time in 2016, driving the No. 01 Chevrolet in the Xfinity Series. The primary sponsor was
Flex Seal. Preece had several decent runs for the mid-pack organization in 2016, just missing the first-ever Xfinity playoffs.
2017–2018: Joe Gibbs Racing In July 2017, Preece returned to the Xfinity Series, racing at Loudon in the No. 20
Toyota Camry for
Joe Gibbs Racing with sponsorship from Mohawk Northeast and Mizzy Construction, finishing a career-best second behind teammate
Kyle Busch. The opportunity originally came after
Kevin Manion contacted Preece about openings at JGR after the retirement of
Carl Edwards. At Iowa, Preece returned to the No. 20 with Mohawk and Falmouth Construction sponsoring. Preece won the pole and held off teammate
Kyle Benjamin on a late restart to win his first career Xfinity race. After his Iowa win, JGR announced that Preece would also drive for the team at Kentucky Speedway in September (a standalone Xfinity race), and later Homestead (where Cup drivers, regardless of experience, are prohibited from participating). Preece, with the
American Red Cross on the No. 20 car, finished fourth at Kentucky. Preece moved to Gibbs’ No. 18
Safelite Toyota at Homestead. Preece was involved in a controversy, as championship contender
Elliott Sadler placed the blame on Preece for blocking him on the final restart of the season. Preece still managed a top-five finish. On November 15, 2017, it was announced that Preece would run another partial schedule with JGR in 2018, running at least ten races in the No. 18 car, sharing it with JGR Cup drivers
Kyle Busch,
Erik Jones and
Daniel Suárez, JGR development driver
Kyle Benjamin, and Australian
James Davison. While he was listed for ten races, more races were possible. Sponsorship of Preece's races in the No. 18 would come primarily from
Rheem. A few of the races were instead supported by
Ruud and its affiliate businesses. Preece began his season with a ninth-place finish at California, his first time finishing outside the top-five at Gibbs. He got back in the top five a week later at Texas. Preece became eligible for the Xfinity Dash 4 Cash after his good run at Texas. The next week at Bristol, Preece won the race and the bonus, taking home the $100,000. It was Preece's second career Xfinity Series win. Preece did not run any of the other Dash 4 Cash races. He returned to the No. 18 car at Daytona.
2019: JR Motorsports For 2019, Preece joined
JR Motorsports to drive their No. 8 part-time. He competed in four events, all finishing in the top ten with a highest of fourth at
Pocono.
Cup Series 2015: Premium Motorsports Preece drove the No. 98 Chevy out of the TBR shop in partnership with
Premium Motorsports. After starting 37th, he finished 32nd in the
Sylvania 300. Preece returned to the Cup Series for the final four races of the season with Premium. TBR did not assist his races at Martinsville, Texas, and Phoenix, though they returned to help field the No. 98 at Homestead out of their shop.
2019–2021: JTG Daugherty Racing On September 28, 2018, Preece was announced as the new full-time driver of the No. 47
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for
JTG Daugherty Racing in 2019, replacing the departing
A. J. Allmendinger and competing for
2019 Rookie of the Year honors. Preece also joined
JR Motorsports for a part-time Xfinity Series schedule in the No. 8 Camaro. On August 16, 2019, Preece confirmed that he would remain with the team for the
2020 season. However, he moved to JTG's No. 37 car as new teammate
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. took over the No. 47. For the
Toyota 500 at
Darlington Raceway, Preece started on the pole via field inversion, unofficially marking his first career pole at the Cup level; he had finished twentieth in the
previous race, and a field inversion placed him in first. Despite running with the leaders for much of the Toyota 500's early stages, he finished last after his engine failed on lap 69. Preece was involved in a violent crash on a restart at
Kansas Speedway in July 2020. On a restart down the backstretch,
Christopher Bell came up in front of
Ryan Newman, sending Bell into the outside wall. Bell came back across traffic, where Newman tagged Preece and Preece hit the inside wall head-on and nearly sent Preece on his side. Fortunately, Preece walked out unscathed. It was Preece's fourth straight DNF, but he broke a string of last-place finishes. Preece scored a total of eight DNFs during the season and finished out the year 29th in points. Preece returned to the No. 37 in 2021, but the car did not have a
charter that would have guaranteed it a spot in every race and only carried enough sponsorship for 24 of 36 races. The performance and funding of the team suffered. The No. 37 would be shut down after 2021, leaving Preece without a ride.
2022: Part-time driver On January 6, 2022,
Stewart–Haas Racing hired Preece as a reserve driver, as the backup driver for all related teams and simulator driver for SHR. Preece will also race two Cup races for
Rick Ware Racing at Dover and Charlotte, three Xfinity races for
B. J. McLeod Motorsports at Richmond, Charlotte, and Nashville, and seven Truck races for
David Gilliland Racing. Preece started thirteenth in the No. 15 Rick Ware Racing car for his Cup Series start in the
2022 DuraMAX Drydene 400 at Dover and finished 25th. Preece would run all three races during the
Coke 600 weekend. He finished eleventh in the Truck Series event after being involved in an accident with
Carson Hocevar. On June 24, 2022, Preece would win his first career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series pole at
Nashville Superspeedway. He would go on to lead 74 of the 150 laps, winning Stage 2 and his second career Truck Series race. He would also race in the Xfinity Series event the following day.
2023–2024: Stewart–Haas Racing in 2023 On November 16, 2022, Stewart–Haas Racing announced that Preece would replace
Cole Custer in the No. 41 for the
2023 season while Custer would return to the 00 Xfinity Series entry. In December,
Chad Johnston returned to SHR to replace
Mike Shiplett as crew chief of the No. 41, after Shiplett moved to
Richard Childress Racing. Preece started the 2023 season with a 36th-place DNF at the
2023 Daytona 500. He scored his first career pole at
Martinsville. He struggled throughout the regular season, scoring only one top-five finish at
Richmond. On August 26, at the
Daytona summer race, Preece was running toward the tail of the lead pack in the closing stages of the race. On lap 157, while racing down the backstretch, he was pushed from the rear by
Erik Jones. The contact sent Preece down the track, where he collided with teammate
Chase Briscoe, and spun onto the apron. As the car slid, aerodynamic forces lifted the car off the ground and rolled it onto its roof. The car landed upside-down in the grass before violently barrel-rolling roughly ten times before finally coming to a rest on its wheels. After a few moments, Preece exited the car under his own power, was put on a stretcher, and taken to a nearby hospital for further evaluation. During his time in the hospital, he tweeted that he would be coming back to race again and expressed disappointment that his race ended in the fashion it did. He was discharged the next morning and would be in the next race at Darlington. Preece would come into the next race at Darlington revealing in his interviews that he had two
black eyes and both of his eyes were
bloodshot from the wreck. The car was taken back to the NASCAR Research and Development center to be studied. Safety concerns emerged as film of the crash showed that the roof hatch, designed to allow the driver to escape from the car through a method other than via the driver's side window, was detached from the car early in the crash, exposing the cockpit during the remainder of the crash. Given his points situation entering the race, the crash eliminated Preece's chances of contending in the NASCAR playoffs. Preece started the
2024 season with a 23rd-place finish at the
2024 Daytona 500. Following the
Atlanta race, the No. 41 was hit with an L1 penalty and docked 35 owner and driver points after pre-race inspection revealed unapproved roof rails. On May 28, 2024, Stewart–Haas Racing announced it would shut down its NASCAR operations at the end of the season.
2025-present: RFK Racing in 2025 On November 19, 2024,
RFK Racing announced that Preece would drive the No. 60 car full-time in
2025. During the
Daytona 500, Preece was involved in another airborne crash at Daytona. The incident occurred when
Christopher Bell spun on lap 196, making contact with Preece and causing his car to lift into a wheelie before going airborne and flipping over. Preece then hit the wall, narrowly missing
Erik Jones before it came back on all four wheels. After the wreck Preece climbed out of the car and was uninjured. A few weeks later at
Las Vegas, Preece would earn his first top-five of the season, a third place finish, tying his career best finish since
Talladega in
2019. At
Talladega, Preece finished second to
Austin Cindric by 0.022 seconds, but was disqualified after post-race inspection revealed the spoiler had three shims instead of two. Preece started the
2026 season with a win at the
Cook Out Clash.
Camping World Truck Series Preece made his debut in the
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in 2021, driving the No. 17 for
David Gilliland Racing in the races at
Nashville Superspeedway and
Pocono Raceway. Despite driving for a Chevrolet team in the Cup Series, Preece drove for DGR, a Ford team, in these starts. At Nashville, he passed
Grant Enfinger with six laps remaining, which enabled him to become the fifth driver in series history to win in his first career start. ==Personal life==