It has been fifteen years since David Ragan last raced a truck in NASCAR. On Wednesday, DGR-Crosley announced Ragan will make his return to the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series when he drives the #17 Ford F-150 at Richmond Raceway in April.
“I’m really looking forward to racing one of DGR-Crosley’s F-150’s at Richmond,” Ragan stated. “I’ve been friends with David [Gilliland] for a long time, and I see how much work he’s putting into this team and the success they’ve had early on. They have a shop full of great people and I’m glad that we could make all this happen.”
Ragan last competed in the Truck Series in 2006, running nineteen of twenty-five races for Roush (Fenway) Racing. He recorded eight top-ten finishes, a pole, and a best run of fifth at Kentucky Speedway as he prepared to ease into full-time racing in the higher tiers. As an eighteen-year-old, he ran ten Truck races for Fiddleback Racing in 2004 to begin his NASCAR career.
DGR-Crosley, who currently fields the #15 full time for rookie Tanner Gray, is owned by David Gilliland. From 2012 to 2015, Ragan and Gilliland were team-mates in the NASCAR Cup Series at Front Row Motorsports. In 2013, the two recorded FRM’s maiden win in a 1–2 finish at Talladega Superspeedway, a victory considered by many as one of the sport’s most popular underdog triumphs. The team switched to Fords from Toyota for the 2020 season.
Ragan retired from full-time Cup competition after 2019 (with John Hunter Nemechek taking over his #38 ride at FRM for 2020) and became a test driver for Ford Performance. He ran the season-opening Daytona 500 with Rick Ware Racing, where he scored his first top five since 2015 as he finished fourth.
Like Ragan, Richmond is also a returnee to the Truck Series after over a decade away. The short track last held a Truck race in 2005 before returning for the 2020 season. Ragan’s lone Truck start at Richmond was a thirty-fifth-place finish in 2004 with Fiddleback; he also has three top tens at the track in the Cup Series, including his first at a non-superspeedway.
