Ryan Preece wins The Clash in sleet and near-freezing temperatures

Ryan Preece outlasted sleet, a wet track and a record number of cautions to win The Clash in near-freezing temperatures at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

The Wednesday night exhibition was the first victory at the top Cup Series level for Preece, who drives a Ford for RFK Racing. The event had originally been scheduled for Sunday but was twice postponed because of snow that blanketed the state.

Preece joins Jeff Gordon and Denny Hamlin as drivers who won The Clash before ever winning a points-paying race. He will now take momentum into Daytona International Speedway for next week's season-opening Daytona 500.

Weather dramatically disrupted the 200-lap event and NASCAR called a break just after the halfway point because it began sleeting over the stadium. NASCAR ordered cars to the pits to put on wet-weather Goodyear tires, and the cars returned to the track with the designated tires, but many drivers complained of visibility issues between the sleet and the glare of the lights.

The cars briefly returned to the pits, the sleet stopped, and they went back to a wet track. But as soon as the race went green, Hamlin slid into pole-sitter Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch was also collected.

From there, it was spin after spin as the race dragged on so long that cars began running out of fuel and past Fox's allotted broadcast window, forcing the remaining 35 laps to be aired on cable. NASCAR allowed the cars to go back to the pits for fuel at the same time coverage left Fox.

The race ranked as one of the coldest in NASCAR history with temperatures hovering around freezing — especially when it began sleeting.

Preece, who has clawed his way through the ranks of NASCAR from a background racing modifieds in the Northeast, was in tears as he celebrated. He's been on NASCAR's national scene since 2013 but is only starting his seventh full season of competition at the Cup level.

“Two years ago I didn't think I had a job — I thought I was going back to Connecticut,” Preece said. “I'm super, super, super emotional.”

Preece ran only two races in 2022, spent the next two seasons with Stewart-Haas Racing, but was out of a seat when that team folded after the 2024 season.

He was picked up by RFK Racing, the team co-owned by fellow driver Brad Keselowski, ahead of 2025 and was arguably the top performer for the organization.

In 223 starts since 2015, Preece has 30 top-10 finishes.

“It's been a (expletive) long road, and it's The Clash, but man, it's just been years and years of grinding,” said Preece, who thanked Keselowski.

“This is as much as a mental game as it as anything and I felt pretty beat up,” Preece said. “We had a couple of restarts go our way and then before you know it you're in the first two rows and then the claws come out.”

William Byron finished second and was followed by Ryan Blaney and Daniel Suarez in his debut race for Spire Motorsports. Hamlin was fifth.

Bowman Gray hosted The Clash for the second consecutive year. It was held at Daytona International Speedway for 43 years from its inception in 1979 through 2021, then moved for three seasons to a temporary track inside Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Larson, the reigning Cup Series champion, started from the pole alongside Hendrick Motorsports teammate Byron, the two-time defending Daytona 500 winner.

Hamlin, who had an emotionally traumatic roller coaster of an offseason, started sixth in his first time in a car since he dramatically lost the Cup title in November. Hamlin revealed before the race that he reinjured a torn labrum that was surgically repaired ahead of the 2025 season when he slipped in the debris from the December house fire that killed his father and critically injured his mother.

He said he'd hold off on repairing it until the end of this upcoming season.

“I don’t think that it ever healed properly,” Hamlin said. “Took a little fall at my mom’s house, going through all the rubble and stuff, and just didn’t feel right. Got it rescanned and re-tore it again.”

Josh Berry and Austin Cindric claimed the final two spots in The Clash by finishing 1-2 in the last chance qualifying heat.

Berry ran away with the win in the heat race in the No. 21 for Wood Brothers Racing, a team affiliated with Team Penske. Cindric had a much tougher task as he raced side-by-side for over 15 laps with Corey Lajoie for the second transfer position.

Lajoie was the injury replacement driver for Keselowski, co-owner of RFK Racing, who is healing from a broken leg suffered in a fall in December. He held his own against fellow Ford driver Cindric, in a Penske entry, as the two jostled back-and-forth for second.

As the drivers came to the checkered flag, AJ Allmendinger gave Cindric a shove in the hopes of moving both Cindric and Lajoie out of his way so that Allmendinger could take the final spot. The move instead pushed Cindric firmly ahead of Lajoie for the final spot in the 200-lap Clash at the historic short track.

Among those who missed making the field for The Clash were Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Todd Gilliland, who both spent a day this week shoveling snow out of the grandstands at Bowman Gray to help NASCAR prepare the facility.

Teams report to Daytona International Speedway next week for the Daytona 500 on Feb. 15. Qualifying for the pole is next Wednesday and the rest of the field will be set via a pair of Thursday races.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Kyle Busch (8) and Ty Gibbs (54) avoid Kyle Larson (5) spinning out during NASCAR's The Clash preseason auto race, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in Winston-Salem, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)

Ryan Preece celebrates in Victory Lane after winning NASCAR's The Clash preseason auto race, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in Winston-Salem, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)

Joey Logano sits on pit road in a weather delay during NASCAR's The Clash preseason auto race, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in Winston-Salem, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)

Denny Hamlin (11) passes Chris Buescher (17) in Turn 1 during NASCAR's The Clash preseason auto race at Bowman Gray Stadium, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in Winston-Salem, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)

Kyle Larson (5) leads a pack of cars into Turn 2 during NASCAR's The Clash preseason auto race at Bowman Gray Stadium, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in Winston-Salem, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)

Kyle Larson looks on prior to NASCAR's The Clash preseason auto race at Bowman Gray Stadium, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in Winston-Salem, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)

SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — A former guitarist for Grammy-winning Baltimore hardcore band Turnstile has been charged with attempted murder after authorities say he chased down and struck a former bandmate's father with his car, badly injuring him.

Montgomery County police officers responding to a Sunday report about a pedestrian being struck in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Silver Spring found William Yates, the 79-year-old father of lead singer Brendan Yates, injured in a front yard, according to charging documents.

Yates' family said guitarist Brady Ebert, a neighbor who parted ways with the band several years ago, had struck him with a car, police wrote. Yates’ daughter, Erin Gerber, told authorities that she and her husband were getting their kids out of their car when Ebert drove up honking at them and yelling obscenities, then drove into her father.

In video footage obtained from a neighbor, Ebert could be seen driving a gold Buick LeSabre and swerving toward William Yates but missing him, according to the charging documents. Yates then threw a rock at Ebert’s vehicle and Gerber dragged her 3-year-old son onto the lawn to avoid being hit. Ebert then turned sharply into Yates' driveway and struck him as he was trying to run away, investigators wrote. Ebert finally drove across the lawn and left.

Yates told a detective that as he was injured on the ground, Ebert returned and yelled that he “deserved it” before driving off again, according to charging documents.

Yates said Ebert used to be in a band with his son and had been causing problems for his family since being kicked out. He said Ebert had been taunting them for long time, but that his behavior had been escalating.

Ebert, 33, was arrested Tuesday and charged with attempted second-degree murder and first-degree assault, court records show.

During a bond hearing Thursday in which he appeared via video, Ebert called William Yates a “maniac” who threw a rock at him asked the judge to watch the surveillance footage, saying it would “contradict” the authorities' narrative of what happened, The Baltimore Banner reported.

But prosecutor Dominic Plantamura said the footage shows it was a “clearly targeted attack” and that Yates is lucky he wasn't injured more seriously.

Ebert's lawyer, John Costello, acknowledged Ebert’s contentious history with his former bandmate, but said, “That does not, in this instance, warrant extra detention.” Costello’s office declined to comment to The Associated Press.

The judge ordered Ebert held without bond.

According to Plantamura, William Yates was injured so badly that a bone stuck out of one leg.

In a statement, Turnstile said it cut ties with Ebert in 2022, “in response to a consistent pattern of harmful behavior." It said a boundary had to be set after he began threatening violence. While Ebert’s “baseless tirades” continued in public since then, the band said it didn’t address them to protect his privacy. Threats escalated in recent months and then there was a physical attack on Brendan Yates’ father this week, the band wrote.

“We are grateful that Mr. Yates survived, has successfully undergone surgery, and we’re hoping for the best possible outcome in his recovery,” the band said. “We have no language left for Brady.”

Turnstile were underground stalwarts until their 2021 album “Glow On” launched them into mainstream consciousness. They cemented their status this year by winning Grammys for Best Rock Album and Best Metal Performance.

FILE - Turnstile's guitarist Brady Ebert performs at the Coachella Music & Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club, Friday, April 19, 2019, in Indio, Calif. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP)