By ANDREW LOVELL
Staff Writer

He grew up racing against Joey Logano, he's crossed paths with stars like Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne and he's been driving at close to 160 miles per hour since he was 12 years old.

But when it comes down to it, 18-year-old Ryan Preece is still just a kid.

"My parents call me a lazy bum," Preece said. "I relax a lot. The best thing in life, don't pressure. Just don't pressure yourself. You only live once."

Preece is making the most of his one life.

The Berlin native sits just 26 points behind Donny Lia heading into the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour's final season race today at Thompson Speedway.

Preece has taken three poles and won two races in 12 starts this season. He's also accumulated nine top-five finishes and 10 top-10 finishes in his most consistent season to date.

"We're probably the most consistent team so far this year," Preece said. "We just had two mechanical failures that really hurt us, as far as point-wise. But even if we don't win the points championship, it's still been a phenomenal year."

Whether he'll admit it or not, phenomenal racing years have been somewhat of a constant in Preece's life.

Preece got his start in racing at the age of six, starting out in the smallest division at Meriden's Silver City Quarter Midget Club. By the time he was seven, Preece had moved up to the highest division and was racing weekly up and down the east coast.

At the age of 11, Preece moved up to racing 270 Micros on dirt, which he did for a year in Massachusetts. That was followed by a move up to 600 Micros, which were also raced on dirt.

The next step from there was racing 600 Micros on asphalt, which eventually led Preece into Modifieds.

"That's how I got my start in Modifieds," Preece said. "When I won my heat race, the guy who parked across from us who won the Modifieds couldn't believe how tiny I was, because I had to have been about 5'1, five feet tall, 120 pounds, who knows. And he asked me to sit in his car, but I was too shy the first week. So we go back like three weeks later because it was a traveling circuit and the same guy parks there and I end up winning that night. So I get in his car and there I am at open practice for the Modifieds and I go out. I ended up, the first time I went out, I went faster than him and I went faster than the racing champion that year.

"To where I am now, it didn't happen all overnight. It took a lot of development and a lot of people helping me and pushing me along."

Modifieds differ greatly from the familiar NASCAR Sprint Cup cars. Modifieds are shorter and wider than Sprint Cup models and also have the front wheels, along with the majority of the front suspension, exposed.

The Modified division is also NASCAR's oldest, and one of its fastest, divisions.

Preece, who said he has a driven a super late model before, said that Modifieds aren't for everyone.

"A modified, I think, is a lot harder to drive," Preece said. "Yeah, you do have more tire, but you're going so much faster. They're a whole different animal."

Preece, it would seem, has been able to tame this animal, though he was certainly born into the right family to do so.

"It's in my blood with both sides," Preece said. "My mom's dad, he owned Modifieds back in the 70s and 80s, way back in the day. And my dad actually raced too, so I was born into it."

Preece's father, Jeff, now runs an air conditioning and heating company in Southington, but still works closely with his son on the race track. Preece's two brothers, Matt and Sean, both used to race when they were younger.

Along with his father Jeff, Preece works closely with his spotter, Mike Hermin Jr., former Cup series racer Kenny Bouchard and crew and car chief Scott Richards.

"They've all been real big impacts on me," Preece said.

Preece, who graduated from Xavier High School in Middletown this past spring, is well-adjusted to life on the road, as his racing career has taken him everywhere from Mahoning Valley Speedway in Pennsylvania to tracks in Florida, Indianapolis and Concord, North Carolina.

"I love traveling," Preece said. "I'll drive to race, I don't care. ... Xavier really, really helped. They went along with me and they made it so the weeks or days I was gone, I could get all the homework and the attendance wasn't counted against me. Last year I missed quite a few days because of racing ... but they really went along with me."

Preece's list of accomplishments at such a young age is impressive. In 2007, at the age of 16, Preece collected three top-10 finishes. The next year, at 17, he won a race, took two poles and collected four top-fives and seven top-10s. That has, of course, been followed by this season, which has Preece well within striking distance of the points championship.

He's already well aware, mathematically speaking, of what needs to happen today to claim the championship.

"If I win and Donny finishes sixth, I win the championship," Preece said. "I would get out of that car and spray water all over everybody. Words couldn't describe how happy I'd be. It's just one of those things you can't describe, but I keep sitting at home thinking about it. I keep having dreams about it at night too."

Preece, who races for Boehler Racing Enterprises and whose sponsors include Davidson Food Products, Mizzy Construction, Logan Steele and Reynolds Auto Wrecking, said that while he is definitely laid back off the track, he's anything but nonchalant on the track.

"I'm a completely different person," Preece said. "Like me, outside the race track, I'm a kid, I'm your typical 18-year-old who has fun, is immature sometimes. But when you're around people, you set present yourself well. When I'm at the race track, I'm an 18-year-old who acts like a 35-year-old that's very calm. I'm always respectful. I'm very serious about racing, I don't joke around. ... Some people, they do racing as a hobby. I do it as a career."

Preece figures to have a long, successful career ahead of him in racing. That seems to suit him just fine.

"My ultimate goal is to race all my life," Preece said. "That's all I want to do, just race and make a living. Ultimately, every driver's dream is to go down south, race and make money doing what they love, but that's not always a reality because it takes a lot of things to do that. But I'd love to race Modifieds all my life, that'd be awesome."

But first things first, right? The race today is, arguably, the biggest race of his career to date.

So, is he nervous?

"I just kind of relax and try to keep everything going," Preece said with a smile. "Everybody always gets all jittery. Me, I'm a kid, so I just look at it as like, 'Hey, let's go have some fun.'"