UPS RACING

Having some time off at home was nice, but now things are back to normal. David and the UPS team have had a busy few weeks. Since Pocono got rained out, they had to drive straight from the track to Dover for a two-day tire test. After two more days at the track, they flew home Wednesday night and then headed to Watkins Glen Thursday afternoon. Lucky for me, I got to miss that trip. But, I did get stuck in the rain at both Pocono and Watkins Glen. Figures we would rain out two weekends in a row.

Remember in my last blog when I mentioned the Pocono golf tournament? Well my team (consisting of Richie, Sean, Steve and myself) came in fourth…I think. We finished somewhere around the front of the pack and there were about 24 teams. David’s team came in second, but he brought in ringers. Last year he competed in a long drive competition on the SPEED Channel. There were multiple events throughout the season and each driver was paired with a long drive guy. Well, David called up his partner from last year, who also brought his club pro friend down to play. They made the short trip from New Jersey to Pocono and played with David and Nick. The course pretty was hard and I’m not sure what team won, but they must have been pretty good.

Did anyone watch the Watkins Glen race? Dwayne, our rear-tire changer, got hit on our first pit stop. The No. 42 was pitted behind us and hit him as he was pulling out of his pit stall. Dwayne went down pretty hard, but got himself right back up and finished the stop. Afterwards, he went to the care center to get checked out. All is good now, he’s got some stitches in his elbow and is sore, but doing well. He’ll be back at it this weekend in Michigan!

Speaking of Michigan….it’s always a busy one. Michigan is Jack’s hometown track and Ford is located there as well. There will be lots of people at the track this weekend and it’s a place Roush has historically run well at. Maybe it will be our turn to get a win!

-Nancy

David during the Pocono Raceway weekend

Well, I’m writing to you guys from Dover because our UPS team is up here for the Goodyear tire test. Today is our second day of the test and with the race at Pocono happening on Monday, we ended up driving straight here after the race to get up here for the test.

Our team has been running non-stop for about a week and we’ll finish up here today and head back to North Carolina for a little time at home before heading out for this weekend’s race at Watkins Glen tomorrow.

Pocono was a long weekend. But every time we go to Pocono, we know that there is a good chance of rain, so it wasn’t all that surprising that qualifying was cancelled again and the race got moved to Monday.

The one nice day of the weekend was Saturday. We had two practice sessions that ended in the early afternoon. After practice, I changed clothes and grabbed some lunch and then headed out to the golf course. Each year at the second Pocono race, the NASCAR Officials host a charity golf tournament. I played with my friend Nick, who also drives my motor home, and two guys I met last year when I went to a long-ball event. They live in New Jersey and made the drive over to come play with us. We had a really good time and did pretty well.

This weekend we get back to road racing. We had a really solid car at Infineon earlier this season, so I’m excited to go to The Glen. I’ve been working on my driving at road courses a lot over the past year, so I’m hoping that we’ll come away from there with a solid finish.

Well, it’s time to get back to testing. Thanks for checking out the site and we’ll talk with you guys next week.

-David

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.

This past weekend at Pocono Raceway, the Pocono Center (SLIC 1840) in the Central Pennsylvania District was featured as the UPS ‘Maximum Center.’

The center has not experienced any injury in two years and three months and has exceeded multiple goals and benchmarks put in place to measure success at the center.

Jack Clark, an employee who works out of the Pocono Center, enjoyed a day at the race as part of the UPS employee hospitality program.

“Just like David’s race team, becoming the Maximum Center was really a team effort,” said Clark on Sunday. “Everyone that I work with does the very best job they can do every day, and it’s a honor to have our number on David’s car.”

Jack and David at Pocono Raceway on Sunday

Pocono Center Maximum Center Photos

     

David during a green-flag run at Pocono Raceway

David Ragan took the green flag from the 30th position on Monday at Pocono Raceway, and battled a loose UPS Ford Fusion for most of the day. While the car never did get to where it was happy all around the tri-oval track, David jumped up inside of top 25 fairly quickly into the race.

After a couple of caution flags flew pretty close together, at one point, David had very few laps on his tires and Crew Chief Jimmy Fennig kept him out on the track. That strategy moved David towards the front of the field and in eighth position for solid collection of laps.

“I thought there the one run that we stayed out on tires that just one lap on them and we were up there in the top 10 and 15, we were pretty good,” said David after the race. “But then our UPS Ford would get a little too free on the end of the run. We made an adjustment and I think we just went a little overboard. We got back in some traffic and that certainly didn’t help. So a combination of our adjustment and trying to make our car faster and poor track position just didn’t work today. “

As the caution periods continue to fly, David filtered through the field and ended up around 23^rd for the majority of the rest of the race. The No. 6 did experience some damage to the front splitter on lap 181, but David brought his machine into the pits and the UPS crew made repairs and sent him back out on the track. David was able to maintain his spot on the lead lap where he remained until taking the checkered flag in 22^nd position.

“At times, I felt like we had a top-10 car, which is a little bit of hope, but we’ve just got to keep looking at these races and keep paying attention to the adjustments that we make and the feedback that I give the crew and try to keep making that perfect.”

David and the UPS team will drive directly from Pocono Raceway to Dover International Speedway, as they will participate in a two-day Goodyear tire test. They’ll have a half-day back at home on Thursday before traveling to Watkins Glen for this Sunday’s race. This weekend’s race at The Glen will be the second road course event of the year.

Kyle at Pocono Raceway

This past weekend at Pocono Raceway, Kyle Blevins who works out of Harrisburg was part of the UPS Trackside Services team. Kyle took some time during the rain delay on Sunday to talk with UPS Racing about what he does both at and away from the track.   

This is my second time out here working for UPS Trackside Services and I really like coming out to the track and representing our company. It’s a nice change of pace and scenery from what I do during the week and it’s an honor to be on the inside and getting the job done.

I can’t say that I’m much of a NASCAR fan myself, but it is always quite the experience coming out here and seeing everything that goes on at the track and just how hyped up fans get when they come out for the event.  It’s pretty intriguing to see just how fast the cars go in real life and all the behind-the-scenes work that goes on to help keep the sport moving.

We had a really great team for Trackside this weekend. A lot of people count on us to get them what they need for the weekend, so we really are a big piece of the helping people get their jobs done for the race.

In my spare time, I like to hang out with friends and family, read, play pool, and just relax when I can. 

Well, it feels like déjà vu writing that qualifying at Pocono has been cancelled, but that is the story again today as rain came into the area after drivers were just 45 minutes into practice.

David Ragan and the UPS team made the most of that only practice and made their way up into the 12^th position as they were starting to get an idea on how their car was going to handle around the tri-oval track. The team was working on finding a little bit more grip in the car when heavy rain came into the area.

“Man, seems like we just can’t catch a break here in Pocono as far as the weather,” said David after qualifying was called. “We were really hoping to qualify our No. 6 UPS Ford because we had a great start to practice earlier this afternoon.”

David will make  his sixth start at the Pennsylvania track where he finished 26^th earlier this season.

“Pocono is always an interesting race because of the way the track is set up, continued David. “It’s a pretty bumpy surface and because of its shape, each corner is different so it’s just finding that balance of getting your car to be happy all the way around the track. But, we’ll just get back out here tomorrow and hope the weather is better to get both practice sessions in and make some final changes to our car for the race on Sunday.”

David and the UPS team will have two practice sessions on Saturday before taking the green flag from the 30^th position on Sunday.

Well we’re sitting here in Pocono and the radar doesn’t look so good. Looks like we’re about to get hit with rain, which is no shocker being in Pocono; it always rains here. It’s okay if it rains, as long as it doesn’t rain Sunday! It’s been a long week! David and I flew to New Jersey Wednesday to visit the UPS technology center up there. It was fun, the people up there are awesome, but the weather didn’t want to let us get home. Here’s our trip back….

On our way back to Newark airport we found out our flight had been cancelled, so I called US Air (while sitting in traffic) and the best they could do for us was a flight out Thursday morning. I asked about Lagaurdia and they had a 9:40PM that was already delayed to 10:10PM. I put us on that and called Continental. Continental had a flight leaving at 8:30PM from Newark to Charlotte. I booked that for us, we got to the airport, checked in, went through security, got to our gate and then found out that flight got cancelled. They could only get us out Thursday morning so we had them switch us to that flight. David and I wound up getting a cab from Newark to Lagaurdia to try our luck at the delayed 9:40PM flight. Keep in mind, its down pouring and lightning all around. An hour later we arrive in Laguardia, check into our flight (get some ice cream, we’ve earned it by this time!) and begin to wait. We filmed David’s blog on our way to the gate (people were looking at us funny), be sure to check it out! From there we sat down at the gate through ground stops for the weather, gate changes and multiple delays of our flight. Luckily it didn’t get cancelled and we finally got on the plane around midnight and got back to Charlotte at 2AM. Once we landed back in Charlotte, I had to call and cancel our Continental flight, what a day! All this seems silly since in New Jersey we were so close we could have gone straight to Pocono, but we both wanted time at home Thursday before the team plane flew out. 

Last night me, David and some of the guys on the team went to a cookout at our old spotters house. It was fun just to hang out for a little bit, but I was sleepy from our Wednesday and Thursday adventure, so I called it an early night.

One thing that we always look forward to when we come to Pocono for the second time each season is the NASCAR Official’s charity golf tournament. I’m playing with Richie, Studer and Steve from the team. I haven’t played since February, so I’m hoping it won’t take too long to get my swing back.

Next week the team is heading to Dover, Delaware, Tuesday and Wednesday for a Goodyear Tire test and then to Watkins Glen Thursday, luckily I don’t have to go to tire tests. I’m heading home to upstate NY for the week to spend some time at home before Watkins Glen. 

I hope everyone has better luck flying than we do!  Talk to you soon!

Brinder Gill at Pocono Raceway

This past weekend at Pocono Raceway, Brinder Gill, who works as a Sales Support Representative in Allentown, Penn. was part of the UPS Track Services team. Brinder took some time out of his busy schedule on race day to talk with UPS Racing about what he does both at and away from the track.   

This weekend at Pocono Raceway was my first time working for UPS Trackside. It was pretty exciting to be out at the track and see all of the fans. It was also nice to see how the whole NASCAR thing works. It was also my first time seeing the sport.

We spent the weekend making deliveries to people all around the track. I’ve been with UPS for two-and-a-half years and was glad to get out to the track and work for the company at the race.

I like working for a company that puts its customers before itself, and that’s what UPS does. Customer service is number one.

When I’m not working, I like to play sports. I play mostly football and basketball. I’m originally from California but moved out to Pennsylvania because I went to school at Penn State.

    

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 31^st 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 15^th position.

David ran between 12^th and 18^th 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 26^th.

“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?