David Ragan moving to MWR opens up seat for young driver
Front Row Motorsports announced Wednesday morning that Brett Moffitt will drive the team's No. 34 Ford on May 9 at Kansas Speedway in the SpongeBob SquarePants 400 (Saturday May 9, 7:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1).
Moffitt, under contract as a development driver for Michael Waltrip Racing, has driven two races this season -- Las Vegas and Phoenix -- on an interim basis for the Bob Jenkins-owned team. The 22-year-old Iowa native has driven in all but one NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race this season, mostly for the Waltrip team in place of Brian Vickers, who has been sidelined indefinitely by a recurrence of blood clots.
Front Row's No. 34 operation has fielded five drivers in nine Sprint Cup races so far this season. Chris Buescher, a NASCAR XFINITY Series regular, has the most appearances -- four -- in the car in 2015. He'll be behind the wheel again this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway for the GEICO 500 (Sunday, 1 p.m. ET, FOX).
Moffitt's stock rose significantly in the second Sprint Cup race of the season at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Subbing for Vickers in the MWR No. 55 Toyota, Moffitt held on for an eighth-place finish in just his eighth premier-series start.
Vickers returned for a brief two-race stint, during which Moffitt landed with Front Row to gain extra Sprint Cup experience. When Vickers was sidelined again, just days before the series' race last month at Auto Club Speedway, Moffitt returned to the No. 55 as a fill-in.
Wednesday's news comes one day after the Waltrip team announced that veteran David Ragan would drive the No. 55 for the rest of the season, starting at Kansas. Ragan had departed his regular ride with Front Row Motorsports after the season-opening Daytona 500 to stand in for the injured Kyle Busch with the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota outfit.
That move touched off a carousel of drivers in the No. 34 ride, including multiple-race substitutions by Buescher and Moffitt, plus single-race appearances for Joe Nemechek (Atlanta) and Reed Sorenson (Richmond).
Though all indications pointed toward Ragan eventually returning to Front Row after his stint with JGR, the opportunity with MWR apparently closes that door. Ragan, who will make his 300th Sprint Cup start this weekend in Gibbs' No. 18, brought Front Row its lone big-league win in a 1-2 finish with teammate David Gilliland at Talladega in May 2013.
"We are grateful to David Ragan for his contributions to the growth of Front Row Motorsports and his commitment to our partners over the past three years," Jenkins said. "He led us on our first trip to Victory Lane, and that's a moment we'll never forget. We wish him the best with his new team."