David Ragan to race MWR’s No. 55 Toyota for rest of 2015 season

FONTANA, CA - MARCH 21: David Ragan, driver of the #18 Interstate Batteries Toyota, stands in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway on March 21, 2015 in Fontana, California. (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images)
FONTANA, CA - MARCH 21:  David Ragan, driver of the #18 Interstate Batteries Toyota, stands in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway on March 21, 2015 in Fontana, California.  (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images)
FONTANA, CA – MARCH 21: David Ragan, driver of the #18 Interstate Batteries Toyota, stands in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway on March 21, 2015 in Fontana, California. (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images)

Michael Waltrip Racing announced Tuesday morning that David Ragan will race the team’s No. 55 Toyota for the remainder of the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, beginning May 9 at Kansas Speedway. Ragan will replace Brian Vickers who had planned to race the Toyota fulltime in 2015. Off season heart surgery in December forced the Thomasville, N.C., native to miss the first two races of the season.

Vickers returned at Las Vegas on March 7, but was sidelined two weeks later by recurring blood clots in his lungs. No timetable has been set for his return. Michael Waltrip, who drove the No. 55 Toyota in the Daytona 500, will compete this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway. Brett Moffitt has six starts in the No. 55 this year, with a career-best eighth-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March.

Ragan is 19th in NASCAR Sprint Cup driver points earned largely by racing the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing as the substitute for the injured Kyle Busch.  MORE>>>

Greg Engle
About Greg Engle 7421 Articles
Greg is a published award winning sportswriter who spent 23 years combined active and active reserve military service, much of that in and around the Special Operations community. Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.