RICHMOND, Va. - Not only did David Ragan earn a career-best third-place finish Saturday night at Richmond, but he did so racing hard against veterans Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart.
It’s been almost six months since Ragan’s previous top-five finish, a fifth in the season-opening Daytona 500.
“The race in Daytona was a lot of fun. Luck plays into a lot at what happens at Daytona. We just happened to be lucky and have a good car,” Ragan said. “This run means a lot and ... it just shows us and everyone else that we can do it.
“We knew we could do it. It’s just a matter of doing it and learning the right way how to do some things.”
Ragan said he was keenly aware of who he was racing late in the race and didn’t want to jeopardize any other drivers’ appearance in the Chase.
"We tried to be a little careful and just to acknowledge the guys that we were racing around, and certainly there at the end in the last 50 laps,” he said.
“When you are around guys like (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) and (Kurt Busch) and (Gordon), you certainly don’t want to do anything to jeopardize their runs.
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Go David! He really has talent he just haven't really been covered due to that problo guy but he is great and he is a Rookie. He learning! He gonna be just fine!
Finished 3rd and no interview after the race! Stupid ESPN
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
David Ragan in contention for rookie titles in two series
Posted on Wed, Sep. 26, 2007
JIM UTTER
The Charlotte Observer
David Ragan is hoping to see double.
Ragan, who leads the NASCAR Busch Series rookie of the year standings, remains a viable candidate to become the first driver to capture that honor in two series in the same season.
He holds a comfortable 24-point lead over Marcos Ambrose in the Busch Series entering Saturday’s Yellow Transportation 300 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan. (3 p.m. Eastern, ESPN2).
Ragan trails leader Juan Pablo Montoya by 15 points in the Nextel Cup series rookie standings with eight races remaining in the season.
“It’s pretty tough. Everyone says, ‘Man, you’re not running that good in Busch’ and I tell everyone it’s just as hard top run in the top 10 in a Cup race as it is a Busch race,” he said. “I’ve had my work cut off for us on the Busch side.
“I feel like our position on the Cup side is where we want to be. We’ve had a few strong races. We’ve had a couple of races that we’ve struggled a little bit. We know some areas that we need to work on and I feel like we’re getting close.”
Ragan has three top-five and seven top-10 finishes on the Busch side this season. He earned his first pole at Texas and his best finish was fourth at Talladega, Ala. He is currently fifth in the series points race.
On the Cup side, Ragan has a pair of top-five finishes this season, with his career-best third coming at Richmond, Va., earlier this month.
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
David Ragan, driver of the No. 6 Discount Tire Ford Fusion and No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion, is still looking for his first win in the NASCAR Busch Series and NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series. The Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidate spoke about the progress he feels he's making going into this weekend's races at Memphis and Atlanta.
DAVID RAGAN - No. 6 Discount Tire Ford Fusion --
WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOUR PROSPECTS ARE FOR WINNING IN EITHER BUSCH OR CUP BEFORE THE END OF THE YEAR?
"I hope they're pretty good. That's certainly a goal. You'd hate to go through the whole year and not win a race. Five years ago, if we didn't win 15 races in a year we'd be kind of disappointed, but as you move up and get into more competitive series, it gets a little harder to win these things. Certainly, we've had some great runs this year and we just want to try to contend for wins. There are probably five or six guys on any given weekend that can win and we just want to be one of them."
ARE YOUR CHANCES BETTER IN BUSCH THAN CUP?
"Obviously the Cup races are a little longer and there are more chances to make mistakes. Plus, the competition is just a little bit more, but in the Busch Series you're racing 25 Cup guys on any given weekend. We're all Cup able teams and I've got good resources and a lot of manufacturer support, so if you can win a Busch race, you can win a Cup race. I feel like our teams are strong enough on each side to win and if we hit our marks right on any given weekend, we can be a contender. It's just a matter of being right and not having any mistakes."
DO YOU PUT MORE PRESSURE ON YOURSELF THAN ANY OTHER OUTSIDE INFLUENCE POSSIBLY COULD?
"Oh yeah. I need people to take a little pressure off of me on the outside. I put a lot of pressure on myself. I want to perform. I grew up winning races every year and being a competitor week-in and week-out. Like I said, when you get in these top series, wins are few and far between because of the competition level, but that's why everybody loves this sport of NASCAR racing. We get to come out and work as hard as we can and see if we're better than the next guy. I feel like our chances are good. We just have to do what we know is right. We know how to have fast race cars and we know what's right and what's wrong, so it's just a matter of doing it."
WHAT CHALLENGES DOES MEMPHIS PRESENT?
"Memphis is a tough little short track. It's a three-quarter mile track that is very easy to overdrive. The track has been there for a number of years, but I'm pretty lucky I've got some good seat time and some good experience there. One of the challenges that we'll fight is that the Cup race is in Atlanta and the Busch race is in Memphis. That's a challenge for some of the guys going back and forth with a limited amount of practice in Memphis, and just going out and racing. As far as the race track itself, that's a track where each corner is a little different. Turns one and two are a little more flat and sweeping and turns three and four are a little more tight, so it's a tough little track to get around. If you've got a good car, it's really fun and if you've got a car that won't turn and won't go, it's kind of frustrating."
DO YOU FEEL THE TRACK TIME YOU'VE GOTTEN RUNNING BUSCH AND CUP HAS SPED UP YOUR DEVELOPMENT?
"Oh yeah, definitely. The track time has helped me and just being in certain racing situations have helped me. Whatever happens on Saturday with green flag pit stops and restarts, that really helps a lot on Sunday just by learning the race track and learning how the racing groove changes. The cars are a little different, especially going to the car of tomorrow full-time in the Cup Series. That's going to make it a little different, but at the same time, just making laps and being around the same guys we race on Saturday and Sunday, it helps build a relationship. Certainly, running the Busch Series is a big help in my Cup effort."
This Press Release and any images that are used,
are used with permission. Do not duplicate or
redistribute in any form without permission or credit.
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Beware the yellow stripe — the distinguishing mark that adorns the rear bumper of each NASCAR rookie driver's car. For the second consecutive year, a rookie led the Nextel Cup Series in crashes and spins.
Although he finished a respectable 23rd in points, Roush Fenway Racing's David Ragan was involved in six more incidents than any other Cup driver in 2007.
According to USA TODAY database research, Ragan was involved in 22 crashes and spins in 36 races, six more incidents than veteran Robby Gordon, who had 16 in 35 races. J.J. Yeley, a Cup rookie for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2006, reduced his involvement from a series-high 17 incidents last year to nine in 2007.
Ragan acknowledges he has plenty of room for improvement, and he says he's doing something about it.
"I have a notebook full of information that I've written down after every race, every weekend," he said. "That's something I'm going to have to go through over the offseason."
His notes include information about the characteristics of each track and about his competition.
"There's no black or white rule on how to avoid wrecks," he said. "The biggest thing is just to be aware of who you're racing. Some guys you can race hard, some guys you can't, and it's just about putting yourself in the best position."
Team co-owner Jack Roush saw more positives than negatives in Ragan's first Cup season.
"There's probably 100 bad things you could expect a rookie would get involved with in his first year," Roush said. "David, I think, is ahead of the curve on that with maybe 10 to 20 things that have happened that were regrettable. Those are behind him. We look forward to 2008. He's going to be knocking on the door in the top 20 of points."
Despite crashing on his entry to pit road while leading the final Busch Series race, Ragan also managed to finish fifth in Busch points thanks to four top-five finishes in 35 starts.
"He's going to win his championship in the Busch (Nationwide Series in 2008) category," Roush said. "Unfortunately, a rookie has to have a rookie year. That's just the way it goes. He certainly hasn't disappointed me in anything he's been able to do."
Ragan is confident in his abilities and not overly concerned about his first-season stats.
"You look at those numbers, and it doesn't weigh where you cut a tire or you blew an engine or someone spun you out," he said. "At Bristol (Motor Speedway) in the fall we had a transmission problem and we got spun out two consecutive (restarts).
"I know what we did. I know what was going on, and we're the people that can control that. That's my job as an employee of Roush Fenway Racing — to look at my weaknesses and improve on them."
Ragan says he'll focus on qualifying efforts, his performance on restarts and determining when to push his equipment. If anything, he thinks he should become a bit more aggressive.
"I've got to know how hard to push the car without taking a chance and wrecking it," he said. "It's about going hard on the restarts — being more aggressive.
"A lot of times I'm not that aggressive. I let a lot of guys push me around a little bit and always seem to lose a spot on the restarts."
Ragan wasn't the only Cup rookie to struggle in 2007. He managed to finish all but four of his 36 races, a far better ratio than fellow rookie David Reutimann, who was involved in six crashes and spins but failed to finish nine of 26 for Michael Waltrip Racing. Six of Reutimann's DNFs were attributable to mechanical failures.
Juan Pablo Montoya, named rookie of the year, had his share of scrapes with walls and series veterans but finished all but four of his 36 starts. He totaled 11 crashes and spins, while A.J. Allmendinger, the other full-time Cup rookie in 2007, made 17 starts and was involved in eight incidents.
Unlike Ragan and Reutimann, Montoya and Allmendinger were making virtually cold-turkey transitions from open-wheel racing, much the way fellow Indianapolis 500 winners Jacques Villeneuve, Sam Hornish Jr. and Dario Franchitti are expected to do in 2008.
Montoya says learning to handle NASCAR machinery in 43-car fields on a variety of tracks is quite an adjustment.
"Getting back to the ovals, getting into a big car, big horsepower (with) very little grip — I'll tell you, it's a handful," Montoya said.
"In open wheel, when you're good you have a lot of grip. The car does whatever you want. It does it all the time. Here, when you're good it's like that for about 10 laps. (The car) keeps you busy."
Montoya's car owner, Chip Ganassi, said Montoya, who posted his first Cup victory on Infineon Raceway's road course, had a rookie season much like he anticipated.
"It's about learning new tricks, and he's doing a good job of it," Ganassi said. "He had his share of ups and downs, but I think it's about par for the course. I think he's established himself now. I think he's around the corner from another win, and I couldn't be happier."
BODY SHOP REGULARS
Rookie David Ragan's 22 wrecks and spins head the list for 2007. Data include only drivers with 30 or more races:
Driver Wrecks/ spins Races Wreck rate
1. David Ragan 22 36 61.1%
2. Robby Gordon 16 35 45.7%
3. Dave Blaney 14 33 42.4%
4. Ricky Rudd 13 31 41.9%
5. (tie) Jamie McMurray 13 36 36.1%
(tie) David Gilliland 13 36 36.1%
(tie) Reed Sorenson 13 36 36.1%
(tie) Martin Truex Jr. 13 36 36.1%
9. Tony Raines 12 34 35.3%
10. David Stremme 12 36 33.3%
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
like we needed someone to tell us that...lol robby in second! blaney? that surprised me a bit, but he ended up in alot of other peeps wrecks several times!...
He cleaned up his act a little at the end of the year didn't he?At least he learns from his mistakes.I think.
__________________
Just when I think you said the stupidest thing ever .....You keep talking To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
__________________
Just when I think you said the stupidest thing ever .....You keep talking To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
David Ragan finishes third, his career-best
Rookie Ragan led Cup Series in crashes and spins
Linear Mode
