UPS RACING

Hey, UPS Racing Fans!

This week is a very exciting week for UPS Racing and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA). David Ragan and the UPS team will compete in the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway with a special BGCA design on the No. 6 Ford Fusion.

Earlier this season, the UPS Foundation and the BGCA launched a program together called Road Code. The program, which is run through BGCA locations throughout the country, teaches teens the importance of safe driving. With the help of UPS’s own drivers, and a few appearances by David Ragan himself, teens across the nation are learning what they can do to become safer drivers.

And while we can’t give away all of the details of the design just yet, check back to the site on Thursday when we’ll have photos of David unveiling the new look of  the No. 6 Ford with the help of some Dallas teens involved in the UPS Road Code program.

David will blog on-location from Texas Motor Speedway to keep you up to speed with all of the details of the car’s design, and about his plans to drive it into Victory Lane!

-UPS Racing

Well, things haven’t slowed down much since last time you guys heard from me. Before we went out to Kansas, David and I drove to Greenville, S.C. for a UPS appearance at a call center on Wednesday. Then on Thursday, we stopped in Wisconsin on our way out to Kansas for another UPS event. Both visits were fun and we were able to meet a bunch of UPS employees in Greenville and UPS customers in Wisconsin. We were in Kohler, Wisconsin for the one visit, and it’s the same place they make all the faucets, sinks and other stuff. It’s a cool little village area, and somewhere I would have never thought of visiting.

In Kansas, we had our good-looking silver UPS Freight Ford on the track, but of course, we had bad luck again. We were good in practice and started picking up spots on the track during the race, but the car ahead of us spun out and we got caught up in it and had to come to pit road for repairs. We had more damage then the car that spun…figures. Oh well, we’ll have to go and get a good finish in California now.

Nancy and Alexis in Los Angeles. David is the cameraman

We actually flew out to California a day early on Wednesday for a UPS Road Code event in downtown Los Angeles. There were a lot of kids in attendance at the Boys and Girls Club, and they really listened to what David had to say about safe driving and asked lots of really good questions. Some of the kids even made cards for David.

Since we don’t get to come out to L.A. too much, we opted to stay at a hotel in downtown on Wednesday night. It was very different from anywhere I’ve ever stayed. Someone referred to it as ‘trendy’ and that is a pretty good description of the place. Check out the photo of Alexis and I waiting on the big chair/couch in the lobby while we waited for David so we could all go to dinner. In case you don’t know Alexis, she’s the one who keeps everything updated on this site and keeps everyone informed through the UPS Twitter feed, among other things, but those are the times you’ve probably heard from her.

Since we were already out west on Thursday, we had some time to play and Alexis and I took a trip to Universal Studios. David had a Discount Tire appearance, so he couldn’t come hang out with us. The weather was perfect and there were hardly any lines, so we pretty much got on everything we wanted. Now it’s back to reality and we’re all back out at the track. Looks like we’ve got a fast UPS Ford, so hopefully we can turn around the bad luck and get a good finish!

We took a tour of the studio's lots and checked out some rides

Yay for an off-weekend! It’s a much needed break in our never-ending travel schedule.
It’s kind of like a college town around here. It seems like most people aren’t from here and any time we get time off everyone heads home to visit family, or plans a vacation. I’m one of them! I’m heading back to NY to see everyone this weekend. David on the other hand is racing…big surprise. The last two years he’s run full-time Nationwide and Cup schedules and hasn’t had a weekend off. This year he gets a weekend off and heads home to race for fun. I guess at least he’s back home and gets to relax a little.

Last week we were in Chicago. We flew in Wednesday morning and had a Road Code appearance at the Boys & Girls Club in downtown Chicago. It’s a cool place and everyone was excited to have David there. From there we drove to Joliet (where the track is) for a Discount Tire store appearance. Actually we sat in traffic the whole way, I wouldn’t have figured traffic would be back at 3:00 PM on a Wednesday afternoon in Chicago, but it was. Lesson learned…..

Me and Casey the Cricket at Worldport!

This past Tuesday, we went to Worldport Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. You can see David’s blogs and photos on the website. It was really cool, but I can’t remember the last time I stayed up all night. Luckily they had cookies and snacks for us so that helped. We also took fun pictures with the UPS safety mascot! There is so much that goes on there; it was very interesting to see it all first hand.

We took the first flight back to Charlotte Wednesday morning and landed at 8:00 AM. I got home and slept a few hours. David is a trooper and stayed up and then drove to Atlanta. He had an event at Six Flags on Thursday for Atlanta Motor Speedway. There is a new rollercoaster there called Goliath. So the event was ‘David vs. Goliath’ and he rode it with some fans and then hung out with his friends the rest of the day at the park. See, he gets to have a little fun now and then.

That’s all I’ve got for now, enjoy your weekend!

See photos from UPS Road Code at the Boys & Girls Club, Chicago