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
