The NASCAR world was treated with the return of a familiar face this weekend, as Ryan Reed got behind the wheel of a stock car for the first time in over two years. The 30 year-old from Bakersfield, California used to be a regular in the Xfinity Series, but has not raced full time in any of the sport’s top three divisions since 2018. That is why many in the industry were surprised when Alpha Prime Racing announced on Tuesday that they would be partnering with MBM Motorsports to field Reed in the #66 car for the upcoming race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Ryan Reed has spent most of his NASCAR career driving in the Xfinity Series, although his career there first began back in 2013 when it was called the Nationwide Series. He drove the #16 car full time for legendary owner Jack Roush from 2014-2018, with Lilly Diabetes as the primary sponsor for most of his efforts. While Reed only amassed seven top-fives and 27 top-tens in his time driving for Roush, he did earn two surprising victories, both of which coming at Daytona in 2015 and 2017, respectively. He also avoided DNFs for the most part, which helped him finish no lower than 11th in the overall standings across his five full time seasons, with his 2016 points finish of sixth being his career best. Despite this, he and Roush Fenway Racing parted ways at the end of the 2018 season, and other than a few starts in the truck series between 2019 and 2021, Reed was essentially out of the sport.

This prolonged absence made it all the more surprising when he announced his one-off drive with Alpha Prime Racing and MBM Motorsports this week. Tandem Diabetes Care would be the sponsor of the car, a company that just like Reed’s old sponsor Lilly Diabetes, is active in helping people cure and fight against diabetes. Old fans of his rejoiced when they saw the news, and many eagerly awaited the drop of the green flag on Saturday to see how Reed would do. And when all was said and done, the returning veteran did not disappoint.

Reed qualified into the field on pure speed, setting the 25th fastest lap time. He raced around the top 20 all day long, managing to avoid the massive accident that took place in the early stages of the race and keep his own car out of trouble. While he did finish three laps behind race winner Riley Herbst, his effort was good enough for a 20th place result. Alpha Prime Racing and MBM Motorsports are midfield-to-backmarker teams in the Xfinity Series, so a top 20 finish is most definitely a good day for them. It was an impressive showing considering the equipment Reed was in, and the fact that he hadn’t raced in the series since he finished 12th at Homestead in his final start for Jack Roush back in 2018. Only time will tell if Ryan Reed continues to make starts in NASCAR, but if this weekend’s race at Las Vegas was any indication, the two-time race winner certainly still has what it takes to compete with the best of the best week in and week out.