For the first time since 2019, Ryan Reed is back in a NASCAR cockpit. On Wednesday, CMI Motorsports announced Reed will drive the #49 Chevrolet Silverado in Saturday’s Camping World Truck Series race at Richmond Raceway.
“Man it’s gonna be cool to drive a race car again,” Reed tweeted. “I spent a lot of my life in a race car, so any opportunity I get nowadays is valued more than I can say. Thanks to Ray (Ciccarelli, team owner) and many others for letting me go do this!”
Reed raced in the Xfinity Series on a full-time basis from 2014 to 2018 for Roush Fenway Racing, scoring two wins in the 2015 and 2017 season openers at Daytona. He also has a start in the Cup Series at Talladega in 2016 for Roush, finishing twenty-sixth. Despite notching top-ten points finishes in all but his final year (where he finished eleventh), he lost his seat when Roush shuttered the Xfinity programme due to Reed’s longtime sponsor Lilly Diabetes (Reed is a Type 1 diabetic) withdrawing its support. In 171 career Xfinity starts, he has two wins, seven top fives, and twenty-seven top tens.
After the 2018 season, Reed made just one start in the NASCAR national series when he finished ninth in the 2019 Truck race at Las Vegas for what is now David Gilliland Racing. The start was his first in the Trucks since his series début in 2012 at the same track (he failed to qualify for the 2016 Daytona race). While he did not return to the driver’s seat for over a year, he remained involved in the sport as a driver coach for ARCA Menards Series racer Jack Wood.
CMI’s #49 made its 2021 début at Bristol with Andrew Gordon after failing to qualifying for three of the first four races. Team owner Ciccarelli was initially in the #49 for Richmond before Wednesday’s announcement. Brad Gross is also scheduled to drive the truck at COTA in May.
