For many a NASCAR fan, David Ragan is considered one of the sport’s young guns. But as it was brought home to him over the past weekend at Myrtle Beach (S.C.) Speedway, he’s been around the sport quite a while.
He’ll turn 28 on Christmas Eve, and he has raced for more than half of those years. He has run seven full seasons in the elite Sprint Cup Series, with two wins, two poles and 34 top-10 finishes to his credit. In 99 Nationwide Series starts over the years, with only two full-time seasons, he’s won twice, taken two poles and posted 46 top-10 finishes. But he raced in Legends, Allison Legacy cars and Late Models for years before he ever broke into NASCAR.
When he returned to Myrtle Beach to compete in the track’s big 400-lap race for Late Model Stock cars, he ran as a teammate to Kaz Grala, who finished two spots ahead of Ragan in second place.
Grala really is a young guy. He’s only 14 and wasn’t old enough to understand the sport the last time Ragan raced at Myrtle Beach, in 2003.
On the same weekend at Myrtle Beach Speedway, Ragan saw Todd Gilliland, the 13-year-old son of his Sprint Cup teammate David Gilliland, finish second in a Limited Late Model race.
“Talking to kids about something that happened at the track in the late 1990s, I realized they probably hadn’t been born then,” Ragan said. “That kind of puts it in perspective.”
It also reinforces to Ragan just how lucky he is to compete at the level he does and to be able to win races such as this year’s Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway.
“There are a lot of talented drivers out there, but there are only 43 spots available in the Sprint Cup Series,” he said. “I really appreciate every opportunity I’ve ever gotten, and I don’t take anything for granted.”
In the 400, Ragan qualified a disappointing 20th, but was satisfied with his fourth-place finish.
“We passed a lot of cars,” he said. “And it was fun.”
After enjoying a Thanksgiving break, Ragan, who is from Unadilla, Ga., plans to attend the Georgia-Georgia Tech college football game Saturday afternoon, and will head south to Pensacola, Fla., to compete in the 46th Snowball Derby at Five Flags Speedway on Dec. 8. The annual event is the most prestigious in asphalt Late Model racing and over the years has attracted some of NASCAR’s top drivers, including the late Dale Earnhardt. Previous winners include NASCAR veterans such as Darrell Waltrip and Kyle Busch.
Ragan has run the Derby the past three seasons, with his best effort coming last year, when he started on the pole and finished eighth behind Erik Jones, who recently became the youngest winner in NASCAR’s Camping World Truck Series.
“We had a shot to win it last year,” he said. “We’re going back down there and give it our best shot again.”
Ragan will drive his own car at the Derby, and his cousin Brett Ragan, a former car chief at Roush Fenway Racing who works at David Ragan’s Ford dealership in Georgia, will serve as his crew chief.
Etc.: JTG Daugherty Racing, which fields the No. 47 driven by A.J. Allmendinger, has announced a technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing. The team will switch from Toyotas to Chevrolets as part of the move.
“We certainly appreciate all the support that TRD (Toyota Racing Development) has provided to JTG Daugherty Racing for five years, and we are great fans of their business model,” JTG Daugherty Racing co-owner Tad Geschickter said in a release announcing the change. “As a single-car team, we feel that aligning directly with a successful multicar organization like Richard Childress Racing is what will work best for us in 2014.”
