David Ragan will be driving the No. 15 Ford Mustang for Rick Ware Racing in next week‘s Daytona 500, marking the 16th consecutive year he‘ll compete in The Great American Race.  He was a guest Wednesday on a NASCAR Zoom call to discuss the opportunity and his plans for the rest of 2022.

WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO COME BACK AND DRIVE THIS RACE AND WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING TO PREPARE TO DRIVE THIS NEXT GEN CAR? 

“When I retired from full-time racing a couple of years ago I really wasn‘t tired of the driving part.  That was the fun part and kind of the easy part on the course of the weekends, but I was just tired of the travel and the commitments from the sponsors and the manufacturers and, really, the grind of the schedule.  It distracted me from trying to be a good husband and a good father, so I indicated that when the situation was right I would love to pop in and run a race here or a race there.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR OTHER RACE WILL BE THIS YEAR?  “We‘re definitely gonna run both Daytona races and maybe one or two more.  I would love to run a short track.  I‘m thinking about maybe the Atlanta race.  That‘s my hometown track.  We don‘t have anything confirmed yet, but after we get through the Daytona 500 we‘re gonna look at the schedule and see what makes sense.  For my schedule, I‘ve got to get approval from my family and make sure it works with Rick Ware and his driver rotation going through.  Three or four races would be ideal for me to have a little bit of fun, get a little bit or experience racing this new car, but not take away from my normal duties with Ford Performance.”

— Ford Performance —

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