David Ragan – Race Recap
Pepsi 400-Daytona, Fla. / July 7th , 2007
Started 24th / Finished 12th

DAVID RAGAN FINSIHES 12TH AT DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

DAYTONA, Fla. (July 7, 2007) –Saturday night’s running of the Pepsi 400 took place under cloudy skies after Friday night’s Busch race was rained out and ran on Saturday morning.

David Ragan, a rookie contender in both the Busch and Cup Series, participated in both the morning and evening races. He lined up 24th, by owner’s points, for the start of the NEXTEL Cup Series event after qualifying was cut short on Friday afternoon due to inclement weather.

The green flag dropped on the 160 lap race at 8:23 pm EST. Ragan, who quickly picked up a couple of spots, radioed to his team that the AAA Travel Ford was “a hair free right off the bat.” Under the caution flag, on lap 16, Ragan came down pit road for four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment. He reentered the field in 15th position.

Ragan quickly moved up into the top-15 when the green flag dropped. He struggled with his Fusion running too loose but compromised by running a high line instead of working the bottom of the track.

The caution flag flew for the third time of the night when the No. 29 car blew up on lap 57. One lap later Ragan was headed for the pits. The AAA pit crew went to work giving him four tires, fuel and another air pressure adjustment before sending him back out on the track in 20th position.

Throughout the next 50 laps Ragan continued to struggle with the handling of his race car. He relayed the message to crew chief, Jimmy Fennig, that the car was a little goofy and had no rear grip. He felt that the rear end wanted to over rotate and the AAA Ford was still free getting into the corners and a little tight on exit.

On lap 108 Ragan made a green flag pit stop for tires, fuel and a pound of air was taken out of the left rear tire. He reentered the field in 25th position, determined to work his way back to the front of the pack.

By lap 131 Ragan had moved back into the top-15 and reported that his car was pretty neutral getting into the turns and a little snug through the center and on exit. On lap 134 Ragan came down pit road for the fifth time of the night, this time under the caution flag. The team took four tires, fuel and a half pound out of the right front tire before heading back out in 18th position.

Ragan continued to fight for every position he could get. He was able to cross the finish line in 12th position taking the Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the eighth time this season. Teammate Jamie McMurray took the win after battle Kyle Busch to the finish line, beating him by five one thousandths of a second.

“At lap 50 of this race I was ready for this race to be over,” said Ragan. “My car was loose as a goose [smile]. It was a handful out there and I don’t know if we just got a couple bad sets of tires or something but the last two runs we were on the tight side. And the last run we freed it up a little more. It was still a little snug.”

Ragan continues, “I couldn’t run the bottom like I wanted to but I don’t think nobody could. Everybody on the bottom just seemed to get bottlenecked up. I got stuck in the middle with about three laps to go and we surged to about 10th and then I fell back a little bit and I feel like if something goofy would have happened certainly we could have been turned around backwards on the back straightaway like we were today in the Busch race. But everybody did what they were supposed to do. This is a lot of fun when we can run a full restrictor plate race. I feel like I drove my heart out and don’t have any scratches on the car.”

Ragan is currently 23rd in the NEXTEL Cup Championship point standings and is running second to Juan Pablo Montoya in the Raybestos Rookie of the Year race.

Ragan will compete next at Chicagoland Speedway in the USG Sheetrock 400 on July 15th. Coverage begins at 2:30 PM Eastern on TNT and MRN.