Ryan Vargas returns to JD Motorsports for 2022

Ryan Vargas will spend another season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with JD Motorsports, the team announced Wednesday. It will be his second full slate.

A former NASCAR Drive for Diversity programme member, Vargas joined JDM for a part-time Xfinity schedule in 2019 and 2020. The latter year saw him run the final six races of the year, during which he scored his first career top ten at Texas when he finished eighth.

Vargas graduated to a full Xfinity schedule in 2021 in JDM’s #6. However, growing pains were inevitable and occurred as a string of finishes outside the top twenty prompted the team to switch him to the #4 driven by Landon Cassill, which was higher in owner points. He was also replaced at Circuit of the Americas, Road America, Watkins Glen, and Indianapolis—all road courses—by ringers, though he remained involved as a mechanic.

Prior to the Xfinity Series, Vargas ran the full 2018 season in what is now the ARCA Menards Series East for D4D team Rev Racing. He recorded six top tens en route to a sixth-place points finish.

“I’m very excited for this opportunity to race for JD Motorsports again in a full-time capacity,” Vargas stated. “Johnny (Davis, team owner) and his entire team have believed in me since day one and have become almost an extended family at this point, and I’m ready to hit the track and put everything I have into this campaign. I spent many years as a fan of this organisation; watching the red cars fight against the big dogs; and I hope to bring that same excitement to the track and show the NASCAR fan base what this team is all about.”

The 21-year-old is the second confirmed driver on JDM’s 2022 roster after Bayley Currey signed with them in December. The team fielded four cars in 2021, and assuming that remains the case, two more remain unfilled.