RICHMOND – David Ragan doesn’t appear to be heading back to Front Row (FRM) Motorsports anytime soon.
Jim Utter of the Charlotte Observer reported Friday that the Unadilla, Georgia native will move from a substitution role at Joe Gibbs Racing to Michael Waltrip Racing’s No. 55 Toyota beginning with the May 9 SpongeBob Square Pants 400 at Kansas Speedway.
Ragan has been driving the No. 18 Toyota for Kyle Busch since the second race of the season at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway. Busch was injured in a wreck in the NASCAR XFINITY Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway.
The two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series winner would replace rookie Brett Moffitt in the No. 55, who has been filling in most of the team’s races since the team’s regular driver Brian Vickers was sidelined once again with blood clots last month at Auto (Calf.) Speedway.
“I know I’m going to be in the 18 car for a little while,” Ragan told Jeff Gluck of USA Today. “This week and Talladega are obviously two very important weeks we’re looking forward to. I’m focused on that and I just don’t really have any comment.”
Ragan would be the fourth driver to pilot the No. 55 Aaron’s Toyota Camry this season, along with Vickers, Moffitt and Michael Waltrip who was announced this week as the driver for next weekend’s GEICO 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
The Charlotte Observer report added that Ragan would remain with the team for the rest of the 2015 season. Waltrip is scheduled to drive a MWR entry at Talladega in October in an effort sponsored by Maxwell House.
The change would bench Moffitt, an impressive rookie from Sprint Cup Series competition at Michael Waltrip Racing. The recently added Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate substituted for Ragan at Front Row Motorsports at Atlanta, Phoenix and Las Vegas.
MWR remains committed to obtaining sponsorship in order to run the former NASCAR K&N Pro Series East standout in a third team and he remains under contract.
An official announcement from MWR is expected sometime next week, according to the report.
Ragan’s jump will require another fill-in-drive for JGR in the No. 18 until Busch’s return.
Chatter has surfaced in the last couple of weeks that Texas XFINITY Series race winner Erik Jones will take the role beginning with the Kansas race. Jones, a full-time competitor in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series filled in for an ailing Denny Hamlin last weekend at Bristol.
“Erik (Jones) has been doing an awesome job obviously in the XFINITY car and truck and he’s obviously got a lot of talent,” Matt Kenseth said Friday at Richmond. “I think it’s hard to judge him either way in what he did in Bristol in Denny’s car.
Last week’s winner and Jones’s teammate at JGR added,” Man, that’s a tough environment – not one lap of practice and even though he ran the race before, the Cup race is just so different to jump in there and go that fast and be surrounded by all those cars and everything. It’s just a lot different.”
With Ragan expected to play musical chairs once again, Front Row Motorsports will need to find a more permanent replacement in its No. 34 Ford.
Roush Fenway Racing has been loaning current XFINITY Series point’s leader Chris Buescher to the team when his schedule doesn’t conflict. That arrangement has life to continue, with other drivers used when Buescher’s schedule doesn’t allow.
Buescher told CATCHFENCE.com Friday afternoon that he doesn’t know of his Cup plans after Talladega, although sources tell CATCHFENCE.com that discussion has already begun to keep Buescher in the No. 34 car past Talladega.
A FRM spokesman told the Charlotte Observer that at this time, the Statesville, North Carolina-based organization was still expecting Ragan to return to the team whenever his tenure at JGR is completed.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
