UPS RACING

David Ragan and the UPS team had their work cut out for them on Sunday as they started the Ford 400 from the 41st position. They got to work pretty quickly and moved up to the 25th position without much trouble. The No. 6 UPS Ford was very loose for the first-half of the race, and didn’t turn too well in the corners. After having a tire go down mid-race, the UPS team finished the season finale in 34th position.

“Our car was pretty free for most of the race,” said David. “We kept making adjustments that would help a little bit, but we just weren’t able to get the car to turn good in the corners. We unloaded pretty quick off the truck this weekend, but after Friday’s practice, we couldn’t get back up towards the front.”

On lap 162, the team’s spotter reported seeing smoke coming from David’s car. He spent one more lap out on the track, but the smoke continued and forced David into the pits under the green flag. The team put on new left-side tires and got David back out on track, but not before going a lap down behind the leaders. David battled to get up into position to receive the Lucky Dog Award, but was never able to get in that spot. He finished the race one lap behind the leaders.

David was the only Ford Racing driver competing Sunday night with the new FR9 engine. This was the first non-restrictor plate track the engine has competed on.

“We didn’t have the car handling well enough to be a contender, but the engine performed great,” continued David. “It got great fuel mileage and it’ll be interesting to see what Doug Yates and the guys say when we get back to the shop. They will have all winter to look at it and I think we’ll be good to go in Daytona for the FR9.”

David finished the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season in 27th position.

“It’s definitely not the way we wanted to end the season, but our UPS team worked hard all year and they never gave up. I’m really looking forward to next year.”

David during the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway

David Ragan and the UPS team started Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway from the 33rd position, but were ready to fight their way up through the field at the one-mile Arizona track.

The team was making progress throughout the first part of the race, but after drivers began checking up in the middle of the field during the restart on lap 120, David had nowhere to go to avoid suffering damage to his UPS Ford Fusion. The UPS team made multiple repairs to the front of the No. 6, but David was only able to make his way up to 23rd position when the checkered flag flew.

“Restarts here at Phoenix are always kind of a mess,” said David after the race. “With the inside wall there, you just don’t have any place to go when other drivers check up on the front stretch. Everybody started checking up in the middle of the pack and we got into the back of the No. 12, and it was just a chain reaction. We were fortunate that we didn’t damage our car bad enough that we couldn’t finish, but we did have to make a couple of trips down pit road after that happened. After we lost our track position, there just weren’t enough cautions for us to get the Lucky Dog.”

David did begin to move up in the field as the race progressed, but on a short track like Phoenix, it’s tough to get your lap back and make a charge towards the front.

“I felt like our UPS Ford was better at the end than the beginning, but we just started too far off,” continued David. “We just didn’t have enough speed. As a whole, it looks like all of the Fords really struggled today. This has been one of our tougher tracks and I’m just glad to have Phoenix behind us.”

David and the UPS team will make their way to Homestead-Miami Speedway for the final race of the 2009 season next week. Coverage for the race begins at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time on ABC.

David in Sunday's O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 at PIR

The UPS team in action on pit road in Texas

The UPS team pretty much broke even in Sunday’s Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway as they started and finished in 17th position.

After solid practice sessions throughout the entire weekend, David Ragan and the team were looking forward to an equally successful race on Sunday with their special UPS/Boys & Girls Clubs of America Ford Fusion.

For most of the race, David’s Ford was loose in the corners, so the UPS team made small adjustments during almost every pit stop of the race to tighten up the No. 6 Ford. The adjustments were working, but they were just not as aggressive as David needed them to be to get the car to grip in the corners.  

David went a lap down on lap 182, but he was able to maintain his position as the first car a lap down when the yellow flag came out on lap 207. As a result of his position, David was the recipient of the Lucky Dog Award and got his lap back when the race returned to green on lap 213.

With 50 laps remaining in the race, David again went down a lap behind the leaders. He battled to get back in position to be the Lucky Dog, but when he was able to get in that position, the caution didn’t came out when the team needed it to.

As the final 10 laps neared, multiple teams realized they would be short on fuel and cars began hitting pit road to get a splash of gas. The UPS team was going to be close on fuel, so Jimmy Fennig brought David into the pits with six laps remaining in the race. David made his way back out on the track and was able to cross the finish line under his own power. But, as a result of having to come into the pits and multiple cars running out of fuel on the final lap, David finished two laps behind the race winner.

“We just started way too loose today,” said David after the race. “We made some good adjustments all night long, but we just couldn’t make them fast enough. We tightened up our UPS Ford on almost every stop, but our adjustments were in small increments. We needed to make more of a big impact with our adjustments. Our car was better at the end than what we started with, and we played the pit strategy game the best we could at the end. We had to come in to pit for fuel which may have cost us a few spots, but we were okay with our car tonight.”

David and the UPS team head to Phoenix International Raceway for the second to last race of the season. The last time the UPS team raced in Phoenix, they started 14th and finished in 22nd position.

David and the No. 6 UPS/Boys & Girls Clubs of America Ford Fusion

David racing through the field on Sunday

It almost looked as if the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series was going to leave Talladega Superspeedway without the dreaded ‘big one’ happening, but the key word there is, almost.

David Ragan and the UPS team were able to stay out of most of the on-track incidents that happened on Sunday, and come away from the 2.5-mile Alabama track with a 17^th-place finish.

David didn’t have much to say on the radio during the race as far as how the car was handling, so pit stops for the UPS team were pretty much routine. Most stops were just for four tires and fuel, and the team only made minor adjustments to tighten the No. 6 up just a bit throughout the race.

The majority of the race saw the 43-car field racing single file, as NASCAR announced an hour before the race that bump drafting in the turns would not be tolerated. Teams also received smaller restrictor plates for the weekend to help slow down the cars and prevent them from going airborne after contact the way they did at Talladega earlier this season.

Once the laps began to wind down, David battled inside of the top 10, and made his way up to third position until there were eight laps left in the race. At that point, drivers began to change what lane they were driving in, so the draft switched and a good portion of the field flew by the lane David was racing in, pushing him down into the 20s.

With six laps to go, the race was red-flagged when Ryan Newman’s car flipped end-over-end in turn three. His car flipped onto its roof, but Newman was able to walk away from the accident without injury.

Once the race went back under yellow, the field was set for a green-white-checkered finish. But, because drivers were beginning to run out of fuel, NASCAR called off the green flag twice, forcing David into the pits to top his UPS Ford off with fuel. He made a very quick stop in the pits and was back inside of the top 20 when the race went back to green.

As the field was coming out of turn four on the final lap, multiple cars were sent spinning across the track. David was one of the cars caught up in that mess, and was sent spinning in the grass. He was able to avoid making contact with any other cars and crossed the finish line in 16^th position.

“Our UPS Ford was pretty fast, but we were just at the mercy of everyone around us,” said David after the race. “It was just kind of a terrible race today in general. There was a lot of single-file racing, and I know it’s exciting there at the end, but what happens is NASCAR slows these cars down. They’re too easy to drive and everyone just gets kind of crazy.  It’s a shame to tear up a lot of good race cars like that, but that’s restrictor plate racing. I’m glad we only have to do it three or four times a year.”

David and his teammate, Matt Kenseth, competed this weekend with the new Ford Racing FR9 engine for the first this season. Neither driver reported any issues and all seemed to go as planned with the engine’s debut.

“The new engine performed great, and we didn’t have any issues,” continued David. “We ran cool all day and had good power with great fuel mileage. It’ll be interesting to see when those guys get back to North Carolina. They’ll look at the valve train and the inside, but from where I was sitting it was pretty good.”

David and the UPS team head back to Texas Motor Speedway next weekend for the Dickies 500 on Sunday. Be sure to check back here later in the week for a special announcement about next weekend’s race.

Routine stop for the UPS crew

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.

For the past couple of weeks, it has seemed as if David Ragan and the UPS team couldn’t even buy some

David getting ready for action in California

good luck. But, that changed on Sunday as David took the checkered flag at Auto Club Speedway in the seventh position.

The top-10 finish was the result of quick pit stops by the UPS team, and some solid driving from the third-year Cup Series driver. The finish is David’s best result since finishing sixth in the season-opening race in Daytona.

“We’re not celebrating like it’s a win, but to get a top-10 for the way our season has been going is certainly refreshing,” said David after the race. “We’ve still got to come a long way as a company in making these cars better to win races, but we made some of the right moves today. Our pit stops were great and our UPS Ford was good enough to steal a few spots there at the end.”

David in his sixth start at Auto Club Speedway

David has his work cut out for him as he started the 30th race of the season from the 31st position. He wasn’t saying too much on the radio at the beginning of the race, but then radioed into the team that the car began to become free off of the turns.

Jimmy Fennig made the right calls in the pits and was able to make air pressure and track bar adjustments to help put David out in a competitive position on the track.

“I think we had a top-15 car the whole race, but we just started in a hole being in 31st,” continued David. “We just had to slowly work our way up through the field. Last week at Kansas, I felt like we had a good car, but we got caught in a wreck in the first 10 laps. So today, I was a little cautious in trying not to get my car torn up, but at the same time, I felt like Jimmy and Mike made good adjustments. We never did get it perfect, and that’s the difference between a top-10 and a top-two or -three.”

David made a charge towards the front of the field after benefiting from the way the pit stops played out late in the race. David came in for four tires and fuel after the caution came out on lap 239. After that stop, David made his way up into the fifth position, but dropped one spot when a multi-car accident brought out the red flag on lap 246. The race was under red for almost 20 minutes so officials could get the track cleared of debris.

When the race made its way back under caution, David restarted in sixth position. He made a great move to get up to the leaders, but he fell just a little bit short and crossed the finish line in the top 10 for the first time since the season-opening race in Daytona.

Up next for David and the UPS team is the NASCAR Banking 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on Saturday night. It will be a busy week in Charlotte getting ready for the race, but after today’s finish, the team will enter the weekend with a lot of momentum on their side.

Another quick UPS pit stop

The UPS pit crew hard at work in Kansas

David Ragan’s third Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway pretty much ended before it began. After completing just six laps of the Price Chopper 400, the No. 98 of Paul Menard spun directly in front of David, leaving him no place to go to avoid damage to his No. 6 UPS Freight Ford Fusion.

The car suffered severe damage to the left side after the contact, causing David to make multiple trips down pit road so the UPS pit crew could work on making repairs. As a result of the damage and falling 11 laps behind the leaders, David took the checkered flag in 35th position.

“When the No. 98 [Menard] spun out, I just couldn’t get stopped,” said David after the race. “We didn’t have too much damage when we hit him, but when everybody else came around and ran into me, that was it. For being that many laps down knocking the fenders off and trying to get it straightened back up, the car didn’t run that bad for how tore up it was. Once you get that many laps down in a 400-mile race, you just can’t do anything.”

Because the car had so much damage, the UPS Freight Ford never ran the same. The car was free throughout the corners for the remainder of the race, and the team did the best they could to get the car back to where it could compete on track. At one point, David felt a vibration in the car, but after a few routine pit stops, the issues he was having seemed to go away. After completing a scheduled pit stop on lap 204, David was too fast exiting pit road and was issued a pass-through penalty.

“Our UPS Freight team was quick on pit road today, which was good so that we went down the least amount of laps as possible with the damage that we had,” continued David. “It was a good effort to finish, but we were in a hole before the real race even started.”

David and the UPS team will make the cross-country trek to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. next weekend for the 30^th race of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Coverage for the race on Sunday begins at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time on ABC.

The No. 6 UPS Freight Ford Fusion at Kansas Speedway

David getting ready for Sunday's race at Dover International Speedway

The Monster Mile got the best of David Ragan and the UPS team on Sunday as an unhappy racecar put the team in 24^th position and four laps behind the leaders when the checkered flag flew.

David started the AAA 400 from the 21^st position, but began dropping on the leader board as his car changed from one extreme to another. As the race progressed, David was free through the center of the turns, but very tight coming out of the turns. The UPS team made multiple air pressure adjustments, along with trying different track bar and wedge changes to help the car turn better in the corners.

“The first two runs of the race, we were just super tight and really slow,” said David. “We got a lap down pretty early and lost our track position. We were on every side of the adjustments today on every single stop. We did air pressure to track bar and wedge adjustments and just could never get it close. We were just really tight or really loose and we were just slow.”

Even though the UPS Ford Fusion was not responding to changes, the UPS crew was extremely quick in the pits, picking up spots almost every stop.

“We were really fortunate that our UPS team had good pit stops and we weren’t involved in any wrecks,” said David. “We’ve just got to keep working on our cars and get better at adjusting during the race.”

David was behind the big crash that happened early in the race involving Joey Logano, Reed Sorenson, Martin Truex Jr. and Robby Gordon. The incident sent Logano rolling seven times down the track. All drivers involved with the crash walked away uninjured.

“That was pretty close when Joey was coming back up the track and I had to check up,” said David. “I don’t think that we had any damage, but I did have to hit the brakes pretty hard, so we came in and changed the tires.”

David and the UPS team head to Kansas Speedway next weekend for the 29^th race of the season. Coverage of next Sunday’s Price Chopper 400 begins at 1 p.m. ET on ABC.

The UPS pit crew picked up multiple spots throughout the entire race

David ready to race in New Hampshire

David Ragan and the UPS team had their work cut out for them after starting Sunday’s Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway from the 42^nd position. But, after just one lap of green-flag racing, David jumped up 10 spots and continued to push his way through the field before damage from contact pit road cost him a top 20 finish and put the UPS team in 33^rd when the checkered flag flew.

Jimmy Fennig and the UPS team were making solid adjustments and moving David in the right direction throughout the entire first half of the race. David made his way into the top 20 on lap 149, and was gaining on the drivers in front of him during each lap.

David made his way into the pits on lap 162, but was hit in his left rear by Kurt Busch. Busch was exiting his pit while David was making his way into the No. 6 pit, and the contact sent David spinning backwards. The scene looked like one right out of a movie as David spun perfectly into the UPS pit stall.

The UPS team continued on with their scheduled pit stop with David facing the wrong direction, but were able to get him back on the track without losing too much time on the stop. As soon as he got up to speed, David radioed he was feeling a heavy vibration in the car. He made another trip down pit road where it was determined he had a bent track bar. That issue forced him into the garage. The UPS team went to work making repairs to the car while the race fell under caution twice.

The UPS team was quick in the garage and David was back out on the track on lap 176. The car was a little snug in the corners, but the vibration was gone and he was able to complete the race without any more issues. He crossed the finish line in 33^rd position.“That was unfortunate for our UPS team,” said David of the pit road incident. “I think that we made some progress from the beginning of the race and we had a top 15 to top 20 car. We were out there just racing our own race and it was just one of those things where the No. 2 was leaving and if I would have slowed down, he would have hit me in my door. In that kind of position, they need to be looking ahead to see what is coming in.

“All in all, still not the car we wanted and still not as fast as we should be, but it just seems like that’s how our year has been,” said David. “We just don’t have any luck on our side. We had a good car today and don’t have anything to show for it.”

David and the UPS team will travel to Dover International Speedway next weekend for the AAA 400 on Sunday. Race coverage begins on ABC at 1 p.m. eastern time.

David on track before damage from a pit road incident sent him to the garage for repairs

David's 100th-career Cup Series race

David Ragan’s 100^th Cup Series start didn’t end up exactly how the third-year Sprint Cup Series driver had hoped.

After starting 26^th in Saturday night’s race at Richmond International Raceway, David finished 33^rd after his UPS Ford Fusion went from being extremely free in the first part of the race, to too tight late in the race.

The UPS team was busy in the pits making adjustments based on what David was saying over the radio, but the changes just never seemed to work to get the No. 6 to cooperate out on the track.

“We just battled all night,” said David after the race. “We made some changes that helped a little and we made some that hurt us. Our UPS Ford was pretty free in the first part of the race and we did our best to tighten it up to help in the corners later in the race. We’ll take a look at what we did tonight and hope to learn something to help us heading into the final 10 races of the season.”

Richmond has been one of David’s favorites tracks to visit, so it was only fitting it served as the site of his 100^th career start.

“It was pretty cool that tonight was my 100th start and that all of them have come with the Roush Fenway organization,” said David. “I just wish we would have had a stronger finish in tonight’s race. “

David and the UPS team travel to New Hampshire Motor Speedway next weekend for the first of the final 10 races of the season.

Be sure to tune into ABC for coverage next Sunday starting at 1 p.m. ET

The UPS team during pre-race activities in Richmond