UPS RACING

Another cold and rainy weekend in Charlotte is behind us and we’re off to Martinsville this week. It always seems to rain wherever the race is, and this past weekend was no exception. We had rain on Thursday (qualifying day), which made for a long day, but we were able to get everything in. For the race on Saturday night, it was cold standing out on pit road, but we all had on lots of layers and even got some hot chocolate halfway through the race from our hauler driver Bill!

David had a good car until a tire going down hurt our track position, but ultimately, he ended on the lead lap in 20^th. This weekend is Martinsville, which is another race close to home. That is something that we always enjoy. Plus, it’s a short track, and David likes short tracks. Hopefully the weather will be warmer and we’ll get a good finish!

On Tuesday, David filmed an episode for CMT ‘Cribs.’ It’s funny how 5-7 minutes of what you see on the air takes about 10 hours to shoot. David wasn’t on camera that whole time, but he did take them on a tour of his house and his race shop. Once he was done, I stuck around with Alexis while the production crew took a lot of b-roll shots. It made for a pretty long day. I think it will all turn out really good and everyone will have to check it out in January when it airs. We don’t know what day it’s going to air yet, but we’ll keep you up to date when we find out.

Having 10 hours of filming creates some down time, so we had a little fun while waiting at David’s shop……check out some of our photos!

David with the Monroe Center SLIC in Charlotte

Each week, the UPS ‘Maximum Center’ program recognizes a UPS operating facility or Freight Service Center for success in safety and service. Chosen facilities are recognized with its Standard Location Identification Code (SLIC) or Freight Service Center three-letter code on the wing of David Ragan’s No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion.

The Monroe Center (SLIC – 2811) in the West Carolina District was selected as the UPS Maximum Center for the Charlotte race last Saturday night.

The center was recognized for its outstanding improvement across all major business elements. The center also demonstrated gains in the Financial, Customer, and People Perspectives.

Monroe Center Maximum Center Photos

David while running 11th at Lowe's Motor Speedway on Saturday night

David Ragan and the No. 6 UPS team started Saturday night’s race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in 29th position. But, it didn’t take too long for them to move up inside of the top 20. The car was on the move until David felt something wrong with one of his new tires. After he came into the pits and the UPS team took a look, they determined he had a right-front tire going down, and as a result of losing a little bit of track position, ended Saturday’s race in 20^th-place finish.

The No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion was very good at the beginning of the race, and that, combined with quick pit stops by the UPS crew, put David up into 11^th place. David maintained a spot right around that position until experiencing the tire issue.

“Our UPS Ford was real good at the beginning of the race,” said David. “We started further back than we would have liked, but we were able to move up pretty quick. We didn’t have to make too many adjustments early in the race because the car was pretty neutral. Just around halfway, the car felt different after making a trip down pit road. It felt like there was something wrong with the tires, so we came in during the next caution period and switched them out. Jimmy said that it looked like our right front was going down, and that cost us track position because it was much more difficult to drive the car with a bad tire on it.

“We just couldn’t get back up in the field after that tire issue,” continued David. “Our UPS pit crew was great in the pits, but we just didn’t get the finish we wanted.”

David and the UPS team will compete in the Tums Fast Relief 500 next weekend at Martinsville Speedway. Coverage for the race begins at 1 p.m. Eastern Time on ABC.

David heading out to qualifying in Charlotte

It was a very long day at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on Thursday for David Ragan and the No. 6 UPS team as rain came into the area and moved all track activities scheduled for the afternoon, into the evening hours.

The team had just one short practice after the weather cleared to get their car ready for qualifying. Because time was limited to work on the car’s setup during practice, David and the UPS team were just 31^st during practice. And unfortunately, they weren’t able to gain much ground during qualifying and will start 29^th in Saturday night’s race.

“Our qualifying lap wasn’t too good,” said David after his run. “We didn’t make it any better from practice because we only picked up a few hundredths. I didn’t think the track would really speed up or slow down much during the rest of qualifying, so our lap really wasn’t very good.”

David and the team will have two more chances on Friday to get their car setup just the way they want for Saturday’s race under the lights in Charlotte. The race will be David’s sixth start at the track in the Cup Series, and the second at the track this season.

Be sure to catch coverage of Saturday’s race on ABC. Coverage starts at 7 p.m. and the green flag will wave around 7:30 p.m.

Yay! Charlotte is over. You’d think we were back to a normal schedule now, but things are never that easy. David’s been out of town testing a bunch; Pikes Peak, Road Atlanta, and next week he’ll be in Sonoma. Luckily for me, Pikes Peak and Road Atlanta were Roush Fenway tests, so our travel department here handled everything, but Sonoma next week isn’t a team thing so I had to handle all the logistics. Logistics is what I do! Between keeping up with his calendar, weekend schedule and sponsor obligations, I stay very busy.

David always tries to get out to Sonoma before the race to make a few laps around the track. He usually goes out with a few other drivers because extra track time never hurts. Of course you can’t test at a NASCAR track this year unless it’s a sanctioned test, but he’ll be making laps in a late model so that makes it acceptable.

David Ragan, the model

This week we did a feature with NASCAR Illustrated. It should be in their August issue, but I’ll let everyone know once I find out for sure. We were in downtown Charlotte at this old Carolina Theatre. It was a really cool rundown old building and definitely seemed like a place where those ghost shows would go and search for ghosts. It was a little scary walking around on the staircases all over the place with a flashlight! The theater was built in 1927 and had some famous people perform back in its day. Anyway, they dressed David up in some nice clothes and had him take a bunch of photos all over the theatre. “GQ David” was quite the model, and we were all impressed. I’ve attached a few photos so everyone can get a preview!

This weekend we are heading to Pocono. Nothing too exciting goes on in Pocono for David’s schedule, but we are going to QVC for UPS. Be sure to tune in Friday night at 8 p.m. and check out David! 

P.S. I think the Coca-Cola 600 highlight for the team was meeting Miss USA. Picture below……

-Nancy

The UPS Racing team with Miss USA, Kristen Dalton

Hey UPS Racing Fans,

Well, it was nice to be home in Charlotte for two weeks, but now it’s back to a normal schedule for us…well, kind of, as normal as our schedule ever gets. Rain at the track is never a fun thing and made for a long weekend in Charlotte for what’s already the longest race we run all year. Our UPS Ford was decent and I think we could have gotten a much better finish if the rain hadn’t come. There isn’t much we can do about that and we’ll just hope for a better run this weekend. We desperately need points and that will be the goal; getting solid finishes and points racing. 

I’ve been out at Pikes Peak in Colorado Monday and Tuesday this week testing and flew straight to Dover. I’m excited for Dover this weekend, we’re back to a normal race weekend and it’ll be a busy one since I’m running both the Nationwide and Cup races. Roush Fenway has always been strong at Dover in the past and I hope to be up front at the end and competing for a win. Hopefully this is the week things will turn around for us.

Let me know if any of you have special memories about the races in Dover.

-David

David and Richie waiting for the rain to pass at LMS

For the second day in a row, inclement weather around Lowe’s Motor Speedway caused issues on the racetrack for David Ragan, the UPS Racing team and the entire NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
 
After complete downpours on Sunday postponed the Coca-Cola 600 until Monday, NASCAR was hoping to run the entire 400-lap event today. But, a steady string of rainstorms made multiple appearances to the track and the weather ended up forcing the race to be called after just 227 laps of 400 were complete.
 
“We sat around the Lowe’s Motor Speedway last night in a couple hours of traffic and got back up and it seems like that’s what did all afternoon,” said Ragan. “Our UPS Ford was decent at times. I think we were just chasing the track more than anything. It seems like once we got it close to being dialed in another rain shower came and we kind of had to start over again. I would have liked to at least get another 50 or 100 laps in. I think we had a better car than where we finished and I know all the fans out there wanted to see some more racing.”
 
David started the race in 34th, and quickly began to move up in the field and staying pretty steady around 18th-24th for most of the event.
  
Rain reports from the spotters on top of the grand stands began to come in right before 3 p.m., which ended up being good timing as a competition yellow flew at that time for NASCAR to take part in a national moment of silence for Memorial Day. After the cars re-fired, David was declared the recipient of the ‘Lucky Dog’ award, which got him back onto the lead lap.
 
Once David and the No. 6 UPS Ford got back out on track, they had trouble with overall grip on the car. Normally, rubber builds up on the race track and can help drivers a little bit with grip, but when the rain kept returning to the track, it kept washing away all of the rubber that had been built up.
 
The final caution flag of the race came out on lap 272 and lasted until lap 277 before the field was called to pit road and the red flag came out. After waiting close to two hours while the rain came down, David and the UPS team were bummed about sitting in 24th-place for the finish, which keeps them 32nd in the points.
 
David and the UPS team will have a short week in the shop before heading to Dover, Delaware for the running of the Autism Speaks 400 this weekend. 

The UPS team in action at Lowe's Motor Speedway

This morning we spent some time at my race shop. It was a small group of people and then my dad and me working on filming an interview for TNT.  

David and Ken Ragan filming with TNT

Days like today when you have no on-track activities and being that all of the drivers are in town, a lot of the network people like TNT are getting geared up for some of their summer activities along with the races that they are covering. We were filming a Father’s Day piece with my dad. We got a chance to show off our old Corvette that was my dad’s that he now has back again and then the 1938 UPS Package Car that we have. It was nice to be able to tell two pretty unique stories in the way that I was able to find my dad’s old Corvette and then him and my family finding me the old UPS Package Car.

This afternoon I’ve got an appearance for Nationwide. Since I’m running a partial schedule in that series, me and Erik Darnell are going to spend some time with some students this afternoon at a high school in Charlotte talking about the Nationwide safety program.

Later this afternoon I’ve got some time for myself. I’ve got some family up here from Georgia so I’m sure we’ll just hang out tonight and then gear up for a busy Saturday.

-David

1938 UPS Package Car