Ryan Preece took advantage of his first career pole position early on Sunday at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, but a pit road violation ultimately forced him to settle for a poor result.

Preece took the pole in Saturday’s qualifying after all four Stewart-Haas Racing Fords performed well. He made the most of what ended up being a track-position-heavy race in which passing was scarce.

When Preece was the first driver off pit road during a round of pit stops on Lap 135 of 400, he had just won Stage 1 after leading all 80 laps and was well on his way to a second stage triumph.

Preece, Martin Truex Jr., and Bubba Wallace were forced to resume the race from the back of the pack after being punished by NASCAR for speeding on pit road during each of their stops.

Preece had a tough time moving back up the field from that point on and eventually dropped a lap. His final placing of 15th was his second-best result of the 2023 season.

“I sped off pit road, I guess,” Preece said after the race. “That ultimately cost us the track position. We had a really fast race car, so once we got in the back it was so hard to do anything, so that’s on me. I’ll take blame for that. I was trying to beat them out and ultimately got snapped speeding.”

Preece’s No. 41 SHR team chose the first pit stall, which is quite near to the exit off pit road, by earning the pole. In his attempt to get to the finish line ahead of Daniel Suarez and Aric Almirola, Preece went over the speed limit.

“It’s unfortunate, but when we had track position I think it showed that we had a really fast (car) but you can’t do those things. You can’t make mistakes.”

Preece stressed that it was essential for him and his crew to perform “all the little things” correctly after collecting the pole on Saturday in order to achieve excellent results in the Cup series.

Despite the error occurring with more than half the race remaining, Preece had little time to recover due to the challenge of passing.

“That first run I think we climbed to 23rd or 21st, so I thought there was opportunity, but after three pit stops everybody else got their car that much better,” he said. “You saw Joey (Logano), they stayed out and gained track position and he ran second.

“I mean, he was a lap down for a while, so you can’t make mistakes.”

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