Coming off a career run at Pocono Raceway, Ryan Vargas announced via Twitter that he will return as driver of the No. 15 Chevrolet Camaro for JD Motorsports with Gary Keller in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Kansas Speedway on Saturday, July 25.
A two-time Wendell Scott Trailblazer Award winner and a NASCAR Next alumnus, the 19-year-old native from La Mirada, California, made his NASCAR national touring series debut in 2019 after previously racing in Super Stock and super late models and the 2018 ARCA Menards Series East season for Rev Racing, where he finished sixth in the final standings and achieved six top-10 results in the 14-race schedule. Driving the No. 15 Chevrolet for JD Motorsports with Gary Keller in the Xfinity Series, Vargas finished 17th in his series debut at Iowa Speedway on July 27. He returned for two more races with the team and in the No. 4 Chevrolet. He finished 18th at Road America in August and 26th at Phoenix’s ISM Raceway in November to attain an average result of 20.33 in his three-race Xfinity slate. When he was not competing in NASCAR, he was contending for the 2019 Irwindale Track Championship.
On June 22, Vargas and JDM reached a multi-race agreement for the 2020 NASCAR season. Last weekend at Pocono Raceway, Vargas had a career run in the making as he dodged a series of late carnages to place himself in contention for a top-five run. On the final lap during an overtime restart, Vargas was running inside the top 10 when he made contact with the outside wall and the incident dropped him to 13th in the final running order. The top-15 result, nonetheless, was Vargas’ best in his fourth Xfinity career start and he was one of four JDM competitors to finish in the top 20 as teammates Jesse Little, B.J. McLeod and Jeffrey Earnhardt finished 10th, 14th and 16th. Following the Xfinity Series’ last race at Pocono, JDM entries have recorded a combined 27 top-20 results with its four-car operation through the first 12 races.
While Vargas does not have a current full-time ride in NASCAR, he continues to pursue sponsorship availabilities and enough financial support that would enable him to gain more seat time in the sport and compete against NASCAR’s elite along with his fellow competitors.
Catch Vargas’ second Xfinity Series race of 2020 with JDM at Kansas Speedway on July 25 at 5 p.m. ET on NBCSN.
