12 NASCAR 12 • Thursday, December 5, 2013
Bureau County Republican • bcrnews.com
Young gun David Ragan has been racing for more than half his life For many a NASCAR fan, David Ragan, of Unadilla, Ga., is considered one of the sport’s young guns. But as it was brought home to him a week ago at Myrtle Beach Speedway, he’s been around the sport quite a while. He’ll turn 28 on Christmas Eve, and he’s been racing for more than half of his life. He’s 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 just two fulltime campaigns, he’s won twice, taken two poles and posted 46 top-10 finishes. But he was racing in Legends, Allison Legacy cars and Late Models for years before he ever broke into NASCAR. When Ragan returned to Myrtle Beach to compete in the track’s big 400-lapper for Late Model Stock cars, he ran as a teammate to Kaz Grala, who wound up finishing in second place, two spots ahead of Ragan. Grala really is a young guy. He’s just 14 and wasn’t old enough to understand the sport the last time Ragan raced at Myrtle Beach, back 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.
JTG Daugherty announces alliance with RCR
Sean Gardner/Getty Images for NASCAR
David Ragan won the Aaron’s 499 Sprint Cup race in 2013. “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 like 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 attended the Georgia-Georgia Tech college football game, then headed south to Pensacola, Fla., to compete in the 46th-annual 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 like Darrell Waltrip and Kyle Busch, and shorttrackers like Fayetteville, Ga.’s Ronnie Sanders and Chase Elliott, who, like his father, Bill Elliott, started out racing on short tracks in the Southeast and quickly moved on to one of NASCAR’s top touring circuits. Ragan has run the Derby for the past three seasons, with his best effort com-
ing last year, when he started on the pole and finished eighth behind Erik Jones, who recently became the youngest winner ever in NASCAR’s Camping World Truck Series. “We had a shot to win it last year,” Ragan 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 now working at David Ragan’s Ford dealership in Perry, will serve as his crew chief.
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 be switching 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 multi-car organization like Richard Childress Racing is what will work best for us in 2014.”
Harvick family escapes house fire Kevin Harvick and his family got a scare last week when a fire broke out in their Oak Ridge, N.C., home. Reports indicated no injuries and only minor damage to their home.
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