David Ragan doesn’t know how long he’ll get to drive the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Sprint Cup car, but he’ll relish every opportunity he can to compete for one of NASCAR’s elite teams.

After spending five years at Roush Fenway Racing, Ragan has spent the last three at Front Row Motorsports, an organization that has fielded two or three cars a race but doesn’t have close to the funding of JGR.

Front Row has loaned Ragan to JGR as the replacement for the injured Kyle Busch, who has had surgery on a compound fracture in his right leg and on a broken left foot suffered in a crash Saturday during the Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway.

JGR officials have not said how long Busch will be out. While no more surgeries are scheduled, Busch must be able to work pedals with both his feet because he likes to brake with his left foot. He remained hospitalized in a Charlotte area hospital Thursday.

Ragan will drive the car for the next “several weeks,” and JGR officials will re-evaluate the program at some point to see if they want to give development driver Erik Jones a shot.

“As far as the length of time Kyle will be out, I don’t think anyone really knows that yet,” Ragan said Thursday after a test day at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “I know for the next several weeks, I’ll be in the 18 car. I don’t know that we have really a hard time frame on it just yet. There’s a lot of moving parts and pieces and certainly it all goes back to how quickly Kyle can heal up and get back driving for them.”

The 29-year-old Ragan has two wins (both at restrictor-plate tracks) in 291 starts. Front Row did not have funding for him to run the entire season, making him available for the Busch substitute role. If Ragan can win a race, he would be eligible for the Chase for the Sprint Cup as long as he finishes the regular season in the top 30 in the standings. Ragan is expected to have returned to Front Row well before the Chase starts in September, creating a possible windfall for Front Row Motorsports to have a driver in the Chase.

While he does have the only win in Front Row Motorsports history — in 2013 at Talladega — Ragan obviously has a better chance for a win in JGR equipment. Ragan has points finishes of 28th, 28th and 32nd in his three years at Front Row.

“It may be a situation where you get a win and you can get into the Chase, but let’s not count our chickens before they hatch,” Ragan said. “That’s a great scenario that if it would play out would be a lot of fun and something cool to talk about. … I’m just taking it race by race.

“I’m sure over the next few weeks, we’ll get a better feel for kind of the time frame on Kyle’s return and what the expectations are for the second half of the year.”

Ragan has a couple of teammates he’s quite familiar with at JGR, whose drivers Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards were teammates of Ragan’s at Roush Fenway.

“It’s not a good position to be in to have to go find a driver, but everybody is really excited about having David here,” Edwards said.

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