Ragan Falls Victim to the Lady in Black; Finishes 38th in Darlington
May 10, 20091:42 PM
DARLINGTON, S.C. (May 9, 2009) – Darlington Raceway is well known as the “Lady in Black” or the “Track to Tough to Tame” and she more than lived up to her reputation. In a race with a record number of cautions the No. 6 UPS Ford was unfortunate enough to be involved in two cautions, one of which sent the UPS team to the garage for repairs. After qualifying 15th and having a solid car in practice the team was ready to race, but things went wrong early. A spin and contact with another competitor sent Ragan down pit road for repairs to his UPS Ford, just to go back out on the track and have a right-rear tire go down. The damage sent him to the garage for repairs, 100 laps later he returned to the track, but had no oil pressure. After a valiant effort his night was over, resulting in a 38th-place finish.
Ragan and crew headed to Darlington with hopes of turning their recent bad luck streak around. Last year in Darlington Ragan qualified 15th and finished fifth. This year looked promising with a strong UPS Ford in practice and a 15th qualifying effort, but things didn’t pan out as well as last year.
The first of 17 cautions came out just four laps into the 367-lap event. Ragan reported to his crew that the UPS Ford was “snug through the middle of the turns.” With so few laps in the race crew chief Jimmy Fennig left Ragan on the track to feel it out over the next green flag run. Ragan did just that and help came by way of caution number two on lap 21. The UPS Ford still needed grip, so Fennig brought Ragan down pit road for four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment.
Ragan returned to the track and the tight handling condition seemed to be briefly relived by the adjustment, but quickly returned. Ragan held on until he could pit under caution on lap 82 for four tires, fuel, along with air pressure and wedge adjustments. Ragan’s crew gained him three spots on pit road setting him up 16th for the green flag restart.
Over the next green flag run Ragan reported that the last change helped his Ford, but was still tight. Ragan pitted under caution on lap 120 for four tires, fuel, a rubber out of the left rear and wedge out of the right side of his UPS Ford. All the changes improved the handling of the UPS Ford, but didn’t solve the tight handling condition plaguing Ragan.
Things quickly went down hill for Ragan and crew. On lap 160 the caution came out when the No. 11 cut down in front of Ragan and spun across the track. Ragan pitted under caution for four tires, fuel, an air pressure adjustment and to fix the right-front fender from the contact with the No. 11.
A few laps later the car in front of Ragan checked up and Ragan got into the back of him. The contact sent Ragan spinning. Ragan came out of the spin unscathed, but when he got straightened out and going again another competitor got into the driver’s side of the No. 6 UPS Ford. Ragan pitted for four tires, fuel, a track bar adjustment and sheet metal repairs. The field restarted on lap 190 with Ragan 24th and still on the lead lap.
On lap 196 Ragan put the team on alert when he said he might have a tire going down and one lap later the tire went down. Ragan lost control of the UPS Ford and had to take it back to the garage for repairs. The team swung into action making repairs on the UPS Ford. The crew spent 100 laps assessing and fixing the damage to return Ragan to the track to make up as much ground as possible. Ragan returned to the track on lap 290 just to have the oil pressure drop on his car and return to the garage. The Roush-Yates Engines guys were there, but there was no saving the UPS Ford with so few laps remaining in the race. Ragan was left with a 38th-place finish and lost valuable points in the standings.
“It all started from a few laps earlier, we got spun around in turns one and two,” said Ragan. “The No. 42, myself and the No. 48 were all bumper-to-bumper and, obviously, had a little bit of damage on the right-rear quarter panel. We came in and put four tires on and we were still going to be fine and the right-rear tire went down. I was going to try to come in that lap, but I just couldn’t find a hole and spun out and someone came on the bottom side and finished us up. We had a good effort and a good car, I felt like, but didn’t have good track position all night long. Our UPS team did a good job and I’ve just got to apologize to all the fans.”
NEXT UP:
NASCAR Sprint Showdown
1.5-mile Lowe’s Motor Speedway
Concord, N.C.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
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