David Ragan – Race Recap
Lenox Industrial Tools 300-Loudon, N.H. / July 1st, 2007
Started 32nd / Finished 15th

DAVID RAGAN SECURES THIRD TOP-15 FINISH IN COT AND ROOKIE OF THE RACE HONORS AT NHIS

LOUDON, N.H. (July 1, 2007) –Roush Fenway Racing spend last weekend in Brooklyn, Mich., just miles from Roush Industries home in Livonia. This weekend the teams traveled to Loudon, New Hampshire, which is the closest track on the circuit to the home of Roush’s newest business partners, Fenway Sports Group and the Boston Red Sox.

Friday was declared as Roush Fenway Day at the historic Fenway Park. All five NEXTEL Cup Series drivers, along with Jack Roush himself were invited to participate in the pre-game ceremonies when the Red Sox took on the Texas Rangers later that evening.

“I hope we can bring the Red Sox some luck tonight.” Said David Ragan during Friday night’s event, “and I hope these guys will be able to bring us some luck out at the race track this weekend too.”

The Red Sox ended up beating the Rangers two to one on Friday night and as far as luck on Sunday, the Roush teams didn’t have the greatest day at the track, but young rookie driver David Ragan definitely came out somewhere on top of the group.

Ragan qualified 32nd for the 317.4 mile event scheduled to run on Sunday afternoon. He started off the race gaining a few positions, but after being forced to make his first pit stop under the green flag Ragan found himself a lap down 70 or so laps into the race.

He continued to radio to his team that their AAA Ford Fusion was running a little tight through the center of the corners. However, the track bar adjustment that the AAA pit crew made during the first stop helped quite a bit with the handling of his race car.

Ragan fought hard to move into position for the lucky dog by the time the next caution came out, but when the yellow flag flew on lap 94 Ragan was positioned as the second car one lap down.

He came down pit road requesting the same adjustment made during the first stop and that is exactly what he got, along with four fresh tires and a full tank of gas. Ragan reentered the field in 32nd position.

The green flag dropped again on lap 101. Ragan was the fourth or fifth car one lap down and desperately in need of returning to the lead lap. He battled his way up to the 29th spot, just in time for the debris caution on lap 119. Ragan got the free pass and returned to the lead lap before hitting pit road.

The AAA team worked quickly to give Ragan four fresh tires with an air pressure adjustment and a full tank of fuel to help him maintain his position on the race track. Ragan reentered the track in 27th positions, picking up two spots on pit road.

The field went green again on lap 130 and it stayed green all the way through lap 200. During that long green flag run Ragan was forced to pit for tires, fuel and another track bar adjustment. By the time the caution flag flew he was in 24th place.

Crew Chief, Jimmy Fennig took time under the yellow flag to ask Ragan about his AAA Ford. “It’s tight through the middle of the turns and lacks forward bite up off the corners during the long runs,” said Ragan. “But the first 20 laps or so it’s just a little tight through the center. We need to work on the turning through the center of the corner without hurting the forward grip.”

Fennig listened to Ragan’s analysis and requests, but made the decision to keep him out in order to gain track position.

Ragan made his final pit stop of the day on lap 255 during a caution for debris. He got four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment before heading back out in 16th place.

During the final portion of the race Ragan got caught up in quite a bit of lap down traffic, however he managed to maintain a spot in the top-20.

He was running in 16th when the white flag came out on lap 299 indicating that there was one lap to go. He was door to door with the No. 2 car driven by Kurt Busch coming out of turn four. They were knocking and banging into each other in a desperate fight for a top-15 finish.

Busch lost it coming out of the turn and Ragan took the spot earning his third top-15 COT finish and the honors of highest finishing Raybestos Rookie for the seventh time in the 2007 season.

“We’ve got to work on qualifying a little better on the AAA team,” said Ragan. “We’ve always got good race cars during the race but when you’re starting the race in 20th, 30th 35th spot it makes for a really long day. I felt like we had a top-10 car if we could have had good track position. We made some points up today. It was a decent day. A top-15 is certainly a work in progress to where we want to be but a solid run. I definitely want to say thank you to my team for a good day in the pits and thank you to AAA and its 50 million members for all of your support.”

Ragan is currently 23rd in the NEXTEL Cup Series Championship point standings and second in the Raybestos Rookie of the Year Race. He trails Juan Pablo Montoya by 14 points.

Ragan will compete next at Daytona International Speedway on July 7th. Coverage begins at 6:30pm EST on TNT and MRN. Ragan competed in the Daytona 500 in February 2007, finishing 5th, his only top five finish so far in the 2007 season.