Fort Worth, Texas – In the midst of rumors that his run as a substitute driver at Joe Gibbs Racing could be near its end, David Ragan delivered with 13th place finish at Texas Motor Speedway Saturday night.
Ragan ran as high as eighth before a consistency of late cautions halted a potential top ten result.
“I think we were really good the middle part of the race and then whatever happened, these short runs at the end, we just weren’t that great,” said Ragan. “Track position is very important. I think if we could have kept our top five (or) top eight track position that would have been good, just not quite good enough on the short runs. I think we had a top ten car, things just didn’t work in our favor the last little bit of the race.”
The finish was good enough to push Ragan up to 10th in the championship standings, ahead of JGR teammates Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards.
The finish comes after JGR development driver Erik Jones won his first XFINITY race Friday night at the 1.5-mile oval, putting his name in the conversation as someone the organization may look to put in the No. 18 Toyota at some point this season.
When asked about if he will be in the car next week Ragan said “Yep, we’ll be there at Bristol.”
Image: Matthew Bishop/About.com NASCAR
