Ragan Drives UPS/Boys and Girls Club Ford to a 17th-Place Finish in Texas

November 9, 2009
8:45 AM

FORT WORTH, Texas (November 8, 2009) – The UPS Ford took on a new look this weekend in the lone star state of Texas. The Boys and Girls Clubs of America graced the hood of Ragan’s UPS Ford along with hand prints of local club members. With a new look Ragan was poised to earn the solid finish that eluded him in the spring due to debris on the grill of his Ford. Unfortunately this trip to Texas resulted in a loose handling race car that just would not come around. Multiple adjustments throughout the race got Ragan’s handling headed in the right direction, but too little to late. Ragan lost valuable track position and had to join in with the field to pit in the closing laps. Ragan ultimately finished the race 17th, two laps down to race winner Kurt Busch.

In practice on Friday Ragan had a fast Ford, but knew there was still room for improvement. When it came time to qualify Ragan made his way around the 1.5-mile track in 28.466 seconds, putting him in the 17th starting position. Saturday Ragan and crew worked on dialing in their Ford for Sunday’s 500-mile race and felt confident going into the event.

A gloomy race day morning quickly turned into a sunny afternoon as soon as it was time for the field to race. Ragan started 17th and was up to 13th just three laps in when the first caution of the day came out. The first caution led into a race full of long green flag runs. Ragan didn’t need much time to come to the conclusion that his Ford was loose. Ragan had trouble turning into each corner and his car slid up off. Ragan came in for service under green on lap 53 for a routine pit stop of four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment.

The air adjustment did not do enough to improve the handling on Ragan’s UPS Ford so crew chief Jimmy Fennig threw a few more adjustments at it on the next stop. Just as Ragan was about to be passed by the leaders the caution came out. Ragan pitted under caution for four tires, fuel, a track-bar adjustment, left-rear wedge adjustment and air pressure change. Ragan radioed back to his team that the car was 60 percent better, but he still needed more.

Another long green flag run cost Ragan more time on the track and the leader continued to close in on him. On the next round of green flag stops the front tire changer’s hose got caught on the splitter resulting in a lengthy pit road service. Ragan went a lap down to the leaders, but 50 laps later found himself the recipient of the “lucky dog” award.

The loose handling condition continued to plague Ragan and cost him track position. Ragan was passed by the leader on lap 284 and tried to stay in position to get the “lucky dog” award again, but a much needed caution never came. Ragan found himself one lap down and short on fuel. Multiple cars pitted in the closing laps for fuel, while others ran out on the track. Fennig called Ragan down pit road for a splash of fuel with seven laps remaining. Ragan crossed the finish line running, while others coasted or ran out, but ultimately was scored 17th.

“We just started way too loose today,” said Ragan. “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. Like I said, we made good adjustments that helped throughout the entire race, but they 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 a pit for fuel which may have cost us a few spots, but we were okay with our car tonight.”

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