After summer slump, Ryan Preece still alive in NASCAR's Chase hunt

Ryan Preece sits just on the outside looking in at the NASCAR Cup Series Chase bubble with four races left in the regular season: 17th in the standings and 38 points back of 16th-place Austin Cindric for the final postseason berth. 

Two straight top 10s at North Wilkesboro and Indianapolis have kept Preece and the No. 60 RFK Racing group in Chase contention after a horrid summer slump that saw him finish 24th or worse six times in eight races. 

Despite challenging summer, Ryan Preece still in Chase hunt

"When it comes to making the Chase, you work all year to be able to be in that final 10-race battle and put yourself in it," Preece said Saturday at Iowa Speedway. "It would be nice to fight our way back in, because the month of May and June were just as bad as you can get from a team standpoint. It was really challenging. 

"Those are the moments that really define you in my opinion. We had some strong showings on the road courses out west and we had a lot of things go our way the last couple weeks. I feel like our group is looking forward to these next [four] weeks and putting it all together."

If Preece were to make the Chase, he'd do so for the first time in his seventh Cup Series season. 

Quotes provided by NASCAR Media.