UPS RACING

Justin Gibson was part of the UPS Trackside Services team this past weekend at Martinsville Speedway. He is based out of UPS Danville.

This past weekend in Martinsville was my second time working UPS Trackside. It’s something that I get really excited to do on race weekend because it brings together the two things that I like most, working for UPS and racing. And this week on April 2, I will have been with UPS for two years.

I’ve always been a big NASCAR fan, so to just be at the track is pretty cool. But what I enjoy most is that we’re out here as a company doing something meaningful for the sport.  A lot of people count on UPS at the track to get them their packages in time for their events for the weekend. And we do our best to make sure all the packages that come into the track are delivered right on time.

I grew up watching racing with my dad. I actually kind of got him into the sport, I don’t know how, but I did. I just started watching when I was real young and then he started liking it. I think my first race was 1992 with my dad here in Martinsville.

When I’m not working for UPS, I like to ride four wheelers, watch racing and watch pretty much any other kind of sport.

 UPS is the Official Express Delivery Company of NASCAR and provides members of the NASCAR family exclusive access to UPS shipping services during race week. The UPS Trackside Service center is available to handle all shipments to and from the track.

After two straight days of rain and on-track activities cancelled, David and the UPS team were excited to actually get out on the track today. 

With qualifying getting cancelled on Friday, the field was set by 2009 points which put the UPS team 26^th in the lineup prior to the start of the race.

The UPS Fusion looked good at the start of the race, and David began to make his way up through the field. He maintained his spot on the lead lap until a caution came out during lap 139. Just as Robby Gordon had a tire going down, which brought out the caution, David also had a tire going down.

So the caution that came out actually was good for the UPS team, as they were able to come into the pits for four new tires and fuel. The team sent David back out on the track, but he came back in two laps later so the team could make sure that the fenders were straight and weren’t going to cause any further tires issues. When David returned to the track, his No. 6 was one lap down in the field.

During a longer green flag run, David did end up going another lap down, which was where he ended the race in 27^th.

“We had a good car today, I feel like,” said David. “We were able to pass at the beginning and we had a lot better racecar than we’ve had in the last couple of weeks. We were just not in a good position when Robby Gordon had his tire go down, we had a tire going down. It seemed like a lot of people today were having tire issues. We had a puncture in ours and had to bring our UPS Fusion into the pits.

“When you have to make an unscheduled pit stop, you get off sequence,” said David. “It’s just really tough. I felt like once we got the car with four fresh tires, we could run in the top 10. We just need to get ourselves in better position. We had a good car all day, but it was a disappointing finish. We’ve got to get ourselves back up into the top 10 with our UPS race team.”

David and the No. 6 UPS team will travel to Texas Motor Speedway next weekend for the seventh race of the 2009 Sprint Cup Series season.

The No. 6 UPS team knew coming into this weekend that rain was probably going to be an issue. And that held true today in Martinsville as qualifying was cancelled because of Mother Nature.

David and the rest of the Cup drivers were able to get one practice in today, and in that session, David spent most of the time around the 13^th position. His No. 6 finished practice in 23^rd.

“Of course every track we go to, we want to qualify into the race by making a run on Friday,” said David. “But the rain was in the forecast all week, and there’s nothing we can do about that. We had a real good car this afternoon in practice, and I think we would have had a top 10 car for qualifying. We worked a lot in race trim and did a couple of qualifying runs, so I’m disappointed we weren’t able to get our UPS Ford Fusion back out on the track.”

David and the rest of the field will have two practices on Saturday to get ready for Sunday’s Goody’s 500.

Saturday’s schedule:

10:30 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.:            Practice

11:50 a.m. – 12:50 p.m.:            Final Practice

Nancy is the Account Manager for the No. 6 UPS Racing team at Roush Fenway Racing.

Well I’ve got to say I’m happy Bristol is behind us and we can move on to Martinsville. The team tested “Little Rock” the short track next to the original Rockingham Speedway last week, which is similar to Martinsville, and from talking to David and Jimmy it sounds like the test went well. If you were to ask David what type of track is his favorite he would tell you short tracks, and Martinsville is definitely a short track. Hopefully the weather holds off and we are able to race. Seems like Sunday will be okay, but it’s not looking as good for Friday and Saturday. We really want to be able to qualify on Friday and not have to start by points, so keep your fingers crossed for us! Last year it was snowing at this race and we all froze.

Besides the racing aspect, we’ve got some other cool things in the works which you’ll see coming up soon. This weekend David is filming a PSA for NASCAR about “Going Green.” Next weekend we are filming part of the NASCAR Brand commercial. You know the one where each person says a different line? It’s like that. And we’re doing some stuff with UPS next week here at the shop. So there will be a lot of David Ragan UPS items coming up for everyone to check out.

On a fun note, I’m not sure how many people know this, but David has some goats. Well, currently they are on a friend’s property, but he just built a fence at his race shop and he’s going to move them there. I’m excited to go play with goats; they are the kind that faint. They don’t literally faint, but when they get scared something in them locks up and they fall down.I’ll try not to scare them, but they will be cool to play with. I’ll be sure to get some photos to share with everyone!

Hopefully we’ll see you guys at the race this weekend!

David Bratcher is a sales manager with UPS and based out of Knoxville, Tennessee. This past weekend, David was a part of the UPS Trackside Services crew at Bristol Motor Speedway.

I’ve been coming out to the track here in Bristol with UPS for as long as I can remember them being involved in the sport. I really have a great time out here and look forward to it every season.

When I first started to come out to the track and work with the Trackside program, I had been working with sponsorships at the University of Tennessee, so it was just a natural fit.

My favorite part of being out at the track is getting to see the drivers and all the haulers and everyone that is involved in the sport.

Before coming out and working at the track, I guess you could say that I was a closet NASCAR fan. But then, once I was able to get to the track and see everything that goes on with the races, I became a big fan of the sport.

The whole weekend our crew made deliveries all around the track and made sure that everybody got what they needed for the race. When people out here at the track see us coming up with packages to deliver, they know that they’re going to have all of their stuff on the correct day.

I’ve been with UPS for 19 years. I started as a driver after I graduated from the University of Tennessee. From driving, I went on as a package supervisor over the drivers and then I got into business development and I’ve been there for the past 14 years. I’ve been relocated to Florida, Canada, Chattanooga, Nashville and Knoxville, so I’ve been able to move around a lot with UPS.

When I’m not at the track I love to jet ski and do anything on the water. I’ve also got a little seven-year-old daughter, and she keeps me busy too. She really likes horses so we do a lot of stuff with horses. Keeping up with her is a full-time job.

UPS is the Official Express Delivery Company of NASCAR

David might have summed up today’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway the best. “This was the fastest 500-lap race that I’ve ever been a part of.”

Usually, the 500 laps at Bristol are plagued by numerous cautions due to beatin’ and bangin’ around the track. While there was a little bit of that going on, there wasn’t much. And therefore, it seemed as if the race flew by.

David started 41^st in the race, and quickly began to knock off cars one at a time and move up through the field. By lap five, he was up to 37^th. On lap 12, he was 33^rd. And after taking just two tires on an early caution for track position, he came out of the pits in 21^st.

He continued right around the high teens and low 20s before entering pit road during another caution period on lap 189. The team took four tires and fuel and David came back out on the track in the back of the pack. It wasn’t because of any missteps by the team; it’s just the way the field filed out of the pits.

There wasn’t too much chatter from David on the radio during the day, but there was a lot from Toby, David’s spotter. Because the racing is so close at Bristol, there was a constant stream of dialogue from Toby doing his best to keep David out of trouble making sure he knew what was going on around his UPS Fusion.

After the race, David was bummed about his finish, but is looking forward to next week in Martinsville.

“It was just a real long day,” said David. “You know that first run we picked up about 10 or 15 spots and I felt like our UPS car was going to be good. But from there on, we just struggled getting off of the corner all day. We made a lot of adjustments just trying to get the rear-end hooked up.

“Our UPS pit crew did a good job on pit road and we picked up spots,” said David. “But when you get a lap down and you’re back in traffic and your car isn’t always perfect, it’s tough. It was just one of those days. This was the fastest 500-lap race that I’ve ever been a part of. We just weren’t good in the beginning and we got behind and then we didn’t have time to get any better. And we needed a good run going into Martinsville to get some points back. But going into next week, we’ve really got to get a top 10.”

David’s fifth Cup visit to Bristol started off a little slow for the No. 6 UPS team. After ending the first and only practice session of the day in 34^th, David and the team were hoping for a little bit more luck heading into qualifying at the fast half-mile track in Bristol, Tenn. 

After heading out as the 19^th of 45 drivers attempting qualifying, David’s time of 15.739 seconds put him in 44^th. Because he has a spot within the top 35 points, David will start 41^st in Sunday’s Food City 500.

“Well, we’re obviously not where we want to be,” said David. “We were a little off in practice and then in qualifying we just didn’t get the result we wanted. But our UPS team has two practices tomorrow to get this thing ready for Sunday.”

David is pulling double-duty this weekend in both the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series.

David’s Cup stats at Bristol: 

Hi Guys,

We’re here in Bristol after an off weekend last week. It seems like forever since we were in Atlanta just a few weeks ago. We had a busy off week. We went and tested for Martinsville. It rained here in North Carolina all weekend, so we didn’t get to do any sort of outside activity. I was able to go home to Unadilla for a couple of days after the Atlanta race, so that was good to catch up with family and friends.

But Bristol is on our minds this weekend. We’ve got a good car that we brought here. We finished 10^th in the last race here last year and it would be really good to have a top-10 or top-five finish this weekend and get some of our points back. But ultimately you never know what can happen in Bristol. You could be up running in fourth and something could happen right up in front of you and you could end up taking the win. We just need to put ourselves in a position to win.

But Bristol is always a fun race. It’s 500 laps so it’s a really long race. It’s good for the fans and all of the drivers really have a fun time at this race. There’s not rain in the schedule so we’re hoping for a good solid and dry weekend. We’re running the Nationwide race too, so that will be a good warm-up for Sunday’s race.

Be sure to tune into the race and thanks for checking out the website.

- David

Kale Uphoff is the Front Tire Changer and Mechanic on the No. 6 UPS team. He is originally from McFarland, Wisconsin and is in his fourth season at Roush Fenway Racing.

How did you get into the sport?  It’s kind of strange how I got started in racing. I started back in Wisconsin where I’m from with Todd Kluever who used to drive for Roush. From there I went to Clemson for the Motorsports Engineering program there. I was at Clemson for a year-and-a-half before I got a job in racing so I left to pursue that, and I’ve been at Roush for four years. 

What’s your favorite part about being on a NASCAR team? All of the excitement around the sport.

What’s your normal ‘run of show’ during the week? At the shop I work on assembling all of the cars.  And when the A-Team is off testing or at the track, I work on the setup plate.

What are your normal responsibilities once arriving to the track each weekend? Once I get to the track I usually help the A-Team out with anything they may need and then once they are set, I help set up our pit stall for the race.  

If you weren’t working in racing, what do you think you would be doing? If I weren’t in racing I would most likely be an engineer of some sort.

What’s your favorite thing to do on an off-weekend? Relax at home.

What is something interesting about you? I guess something interesting that not many people know is that growing up I hated racing, but now I love it!

Kale’s Favorites:

Movie: Top Gun (all-time favorite)

TV Show: Friday Night Lights.

Cartoon as a kid: I didn’t watch cartoons growing up.

Pizza toppings? Sausage and mushroom.

Place to eat? Mickey and Mooch.

Music: A little bit of everything.