NASCAR News and Rumors 2016: David Ragan Joins BK Racing Next Season
Professional stock car race driver David Ragan was literally a journeyman last season when he played for three different teams. But it looks like he's going to have a much better season this year after BK Racing reached an agreement with him to race for them, joining a young driver in Matt DiBenedetto for the team's two-car 2016 Sprint Cup campaign.
Ragan's 2015 campaign began with Front Row Motosports, where he only raced once, opting to join Joe Gibbs Racing as a temporary replacement for Kyle Busch, who was injured that time. He went on to represent JGR for nine total races and achieved a top 5 placing at Martinsville.
His most significant achievement last year was when he was able to run for 26 races under Michael Waltrip Racing. He got the job as a full-time fill in for Brian Vickers. Vickers couldn't continue the season due to blood clots. He, however, did not catch a break to start the year after the news that MWR does not intend to field a full-time team after last season. Hence, he was without a job coming into the 2016 season.
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Ragan, 30, owns two Sprint Cup wins in 326 starts. After finishing fifth in Martinsville as Busch's replacement, he improved his standing for 2015, going up to 27th. After signing with MWR, expectations were high, but sooner or later he had to find a new team after learning that MWR will no longer be competing after 2015.
But because BK racing bought majority of MWR's cars, it was already a given that Ragan would be donning the Burger King team. Reports are coming in that he will be racing with Dr. Pepper as sponsor, at least for some races.
According to Ragan, he's just happy he found a team to work with for next season and that BK racing has a lot of growth potential. And to his benefit, the team did make a lot of improvements in the offseason, purchasing new equipment, cars, and adding personnel.
