The No. 6 UPS team in action at Pocono Raceway
David Ragan and the No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion team didn’t get the finish they were hoping for at Pocono Raceway. With the hope of having Pocono be the site of a turnaround for the team, David battled a loose racecar throughout the beginning of the race, which put him too far back in the field when his car started to respond to changes the UPS team made in the pits.
Qualifying on Friday was cancelled because of inclement weather and David took the green flag from the 31st position.
With a couple of early caution periods, Crew Chief, Jimmy Fennig used that to his advantage to pit for just two tires and move David towards the front of the field. That strategy worked and put David back on the track in the 15th position.
David ran between 12th and 18th position for a solid green-flag period, but then began to battle a loose car.
David on track during the Pocono 500
“We kept trying to make our UPS Ford fast today; we just didn’t get it driving good enough, quick enough,” said David. “During the first 100 laps, we just struggled with being too loose. But, the last run of the day, we were trying to conserve a little bit of fuel, which was a good call. If we had had a little bit more fuel, we could have raced a little bit harder at the end.”
This weekend in Pocono was the first event where NASCAR implemented the double-file restart rule among lead-lap cars. Previously only used during non-points events, the double-file restart change was made so there would be more passing at the front on restarts. But, there’s a little bit more to it than drivers just restarting in two lines.
A couple new things about restarts include allowing the leader to decide if they want to start on the inside or outside of the front row. From there, the second-place driver restarts next to them. After that, drivers that are in odd-numbered positions start from the inside lane and drivers in even-numbered positions start on the outside lane. Plus, if the leader pits and lapped cars stay out on the track, they are able to get waved around the pace car and get their lap back.
David was able to take advantage of being a ‘waved car’ towards the end of the race, which ultimately got him back on the lead lap where he stayed for the remainder of the race and finished in 26th.
“I thought that the double-file restarts worked out well,” said David. “Strategy-wise, the first chance that we had to stay out and be the waved car and try to short-pit and get back out, it just didn’t work because the cautions fell outside of our pit window, so that’s just an unlucky break for UPS team. But, later in the race, we were able to get back on the lead lap.”
David and the UPS team head to Michigan International Speedway for next weekend’s LifeLock 400.
UPS Racing wants to know: With the series heading to the Motor City area, what was your first car?
