UPS RACING

David getting ready to race in Vegas

Lady Luck and the Lucky Dog just weren’t on the side of David Ragan and the UPS team on Sunday in Las Vegas.

After starting 18th in his fourth start at the 1.5-mile track, David’s UPS Ford Fusion was very free, both in and off of the corners. Donnie Wingo and the UPS team made multiple track bar and air pressure adjustments to help the handling of the car, and after a few stops of continued changes, the No. 6 began to tighten up a bit for David.

David was running right in the middle of the field when he came in for a green-flag pit stop on lap 162. During that stop, fuel began spilling out of the car. Because two full cans of fuel did not make it into the tank, David had to come in a little bit early for his next pit stop. That stop also happened under green, and during that time, David dropped a lap down behind the leaders.

After catching back up on fuel and stops, David battled to get in position to earn the Lucky Dog award. He made his final pit stop on lap 234 and came out of the pits just one spot behind Scott Speed, who was the first driver a lap down. David went back and forth with Speed for position, but the caution didn’t fly again in the race, and as a result, David finished one lap behind the leaders.

“We made improvements on our car, but our finishing result doesn’t show what kind of car that we had,” said David after the race. “Certainly pitting an extra time there under green definitely hurt us. We had a mishap there with the fuel and we couldn’t run as long as the other guys. We’re certainly not happy with where we finished, but we made some progress.

“We brought back our UPS Ford in one piece, but we’ll have to continue to work on the particulars,” continued David. “We just need to get a full race in and run like we should. We’ve got some top-10 cars so we’ve just got to keep working.”

David and the UPS team head to both David and UPS’s home track of Atlanta Motor Speedway. The race will air on Fox at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Video from inside the F-16! Check out David looking up to see the ground…. that’s something you don’t see every day.

If you didn’t see the other two videos, check out:

Part 1: Safety Equipment and Briefing http://www.racing.ups.com/2010/02/birdday10/

Part 2: Getting Ready for Takeoff http://www.racing.ups.com/2010/02/part2thunder/

After David was done getting briefed by the doctor and pilot, it was time to head out and get strapped in to the Thunderbirds’ F-16!

If you didn’t see the other two videos, check out:

Part 1: Safety Equipment and Briefing http://www.racing.ups.com/2010/02/birdday10/

Part 3: Up, Up and Away! http://www.racing.ups.com/2010/02/thunder310/

We’d like to thank all of you fans that are in the military for what you do for our country.

Let us know: How many of our UPS Racing fans are part of the military?

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

Nancy at Roush Fenway Racing

Welcome to my never-ending world of all things David Ragan. These first few races have been super busy and we are all excited about a much deserved off-weekend. I think I’m still tired from going back and forth from the west coast between California and Vegas. Being snowed-in at Vegas (because of snow in NC) definitely doesn’t help the tired situation. The Roush planes got stuck in Vegas Sunday night so we didn’t get to come home until Monday. I know Vegas isn’t a bad place to be stranded, but by Sunday night we are all ready to head home.

Last week heading into Atlanta was really busy. Atlanta is not only the home of UPS, but also David. David is from a small town south of the track, but Atlanta Motor Speedway is his hometown track.

Wednesday before the race he filmed a commercial for Coke right here at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, and then Thursday morning we headed down to Atlanta to visit UPS headquarters. I’ve talked to a lot of different UPS people on the phone and over email so it’s always good to put faces with names and it’s good for David to see all the different people that have worked on the racing program. It was a really good visit, too bad things at the track didn’t go quite so smoothly. Luckily I don’t work on the car (about the only time I touch it is to make sure the decals are right) so I am able to avoid anyone who might not be in a great mood since our car wasn’t very good. The team worked really hard and got it running better by the end of the race, but I guess it was just one of those days. We’ll turn it around at the short tracks coming up.

Going into an off-weekend I’ve been planning ahead for all the upcoming races, as well as all the miscellaneous schedule and media things that fall onto my plate. Not only do I keep up with my own life, but I’m in charge of David’s schedule as well. I took a trip to his shop today to meet with a production company for a TV pilot we are shooting tomorrow. Tomorrow morning I’ll be there bright and early to position his UPS van, police car and fire truck for the production company to get everything lit before the talent shows up to film. Fun stuff! It will all turn out great in the end; it’s just a lot of little stuff to make it happen. I’m not sure when or where it will show up on TV yet, but I’ll give everyone a heads up so you can check it out.

Hi, I’m Anthony Mares from the Las Vegas area and this past weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, I was part of the Trackside Services team for UPS.

Anthony Mares at Las Vegas Trackside Services

I’ve been with UPS for over 20 years and this is a special event at the track that I’ve been able to work at for the past four or five years. The honor of being out here mostly goes to 20+ year drivers, so it’s something that you do have to earn. When I’m not doing this on race weekends, I have my own route that I do during the week.

The week of the race is a really busy time. During the first part of the week, there is a lot going on and a lot involved. We do a lot of sorting with freight and making sure that everyone gets their stuff. Most of the time, we don’t know where any of the customers are set up during that time, so we head out and locate everyone so we have an idea of where they will be for the weekend. This year we did really good and got rid of every single package during the week.

I will say that I am a race fan and I’ve been coming out to NASCAR races here in Vegas ever since they opened this track. And for the last four or five years I’ve been working Trackside.

My favorite part about being out here is representing UPS. We are immediately recognizable to everyone at the track. There are a lot of people at the haulers and vendors that count on UPS for on-time shipments and getting their stuff quickly in order to have a successful event. It’s fun when you’re making a delivery and you know that they’re happy to see you. I get a lot of satisfaction from that and being out here for UPS.

It seems that Lady Luck was just not on the side of David Ragan and the UPS team today in Las Vegas. Ragan started the race in 35th, and quickly moved up to 24th between the two quick caution flags that came out on laps two and six.  

David on track in Vegas

After David restarted following the second caution period, he slowly began noticing issues with the car. He radioed his crew chief Jimmy Fennig that the No. 6 UPS Ford was pretty free all the way around the track, but more so in turns three and four.

Ragan hung around running 20th-24th for the next 50 laps until reporting that the car felt like it was locking up. He came back on the radio saying that the engine was skipping and by Lap 74, the No. 6 was heading into the garage with a trail of smoke following. 

“The engine was skipping and popping and we even switched ignition boxes because I felt like it might just be something small, but it kept getting worse and worse,” said David as his No. 6 sat inside the team’s garage stall. “I’m really proud of our UPS guys. We didn’t have the greatest car, but we were making adjustments to get back up in the field. I’m just disappointed we weren’t able to stay out there and race for longer.”

David’s teammates, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards also experienced engine trouble in the race. He suspects all succumbed the exact same mechanical issue. In the four years Ragan has been with Roush Fenway Racing, he never had an engine failure before today.

“Things like this happen when we are trying to get the most from our race cars.  I’m just disappointed it had to happen this early in the race.”

While their race day was cut short, the team now heads back to Charlotte to get ready for a big race weekend next week in Atlanta. Not only is it a home race for UPS, but also for David who grew up in Unadilla, Georgia.

We’ll see you at the track!

David and the rest of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series have finished up qualifying here in Las Vegas for Sunday’s Shelby 427.

David's stats up on Sprint Vision during his qualifying runThe UPS team drew the 20th position for qualifying and from his effort; David will start 35th in Sunday’s race.

While his qualifying position wasn’t exactly what he was hoping for, last year in this race David started 38^th and finished solidly in seventh, so qualifying at this track for Ragan hasn’t been any sort of race-finish indicator.

“We never really qualify great here,” said Ragan after his run. “We had a good car last year and I think we finished top 10, but I feel like our UPS Ford isn’t that bad, but there’s just not a lot of speed in it.”

When asked about what the biggest challenge was about this race, David said, “Just staying out of trouble and getting our car to where it’s easy to pass other race cars. We’re not gonna have great track position to start the race and it looks like a few of our other teammates are gonna be back there where we’re at, so we’ve just got to maneuver around the other guys. Our UPS pit crew has been doing a pretty good job on pit road, so we’ve just got to make sure everybody is on the ball and I think we’ll have a good car when the race comes, we’ve just got to use it well.”  

David enters this weekend as the eighth-place driver in the point standings, a position he hopes to hold on to after the checkered flag waves on Sunday. 

A pretty cool thing about this weekend’s race is the race sponsor, Shelby Automotive. Normally, the race here is 267 laps for 400.5 miles, but with race named the ‘Shelby 427′, Sunday’s race will run for an extra 18 laps, totally 285 for 427.5 miles.

The 427 number is significant to Shelby because of the 427-cubic-inch V8 engines that Carroll Shelby started building for Ford back in the 1960s. That’s just a neat thing for out here in the Las Vegas area with Shelby’s factory literally sitting right next to the Speedway.

Be sure to tune into the race on FOX on Sunday to see David and the No. 6 UPS team take the green flag at 1:30 p.m. (PT) and 4:30 p.m. (ET).