How do you know if Dragon is close in any capacity or not, he is clearly not playing a pirate game either way when it comes to the One Piece, he could just be waiting to see which one of the Yonko gets it.
But you're assuming he has to go this piracy route of getting someone to read poneglyphs yada yada, when Dragon is not a pirate first like the rest of these shmucks like Luffy who doesn't even know what it is or does.
Which comes to the next point, if no one knows what the One Piece does besides Imu then why tf would Dragon be in a hurry to possess it? Or could it be the case that he even knows about the foretold Joyboy prophecy and that Nika will get the one piece and meet Imu in the "3rd world".
So there are multiple layers here, and Dragon does not have to be in this generic race, he is clearly conducting a revolution behind the scenes against the God Knights and Imu, who are also behind the scenes. With all this race for the One Piece going on and taking place in the front and centre stage.
If Dragons son ends up getting the One Piece anyway, which he will, then why tf does he have to be in the race to get it? it will just work out. Maybe Dragon intends to meet Luffy once he has the One Piece in his possession and is the Pirate King, because he can work with the Pirate King.
