DAYTONA BEACH, FLA.
David Ragan’s victory in the Coke Zero 400 was sweet revenge.
After NASCAR black-flagged Ragan when he was leading the Daytona 500 with two laps to go, he watched his first career Sprint Cup win slip away.
Ragan drafted with Roush Fenway Racing teammateMatt Kenseth, who won the 2009 Daytona 500 under the direction of Blickensderfer. Ragan took the lead in the No. 6 UPS Ford on Lap 162 during the restart after the first of three wrecks erupted in the closing laps of the race. And Kenseth committed to pushing Ragan to the finish.
You just won it.’
We should be 13th in points. We've got good tracks coming up. So I'm happy about the win. At the start of the season, Jack Roush put Ragan on notice. Jack Roush was “hopeful” that Saturday’s win could turn the tide.
While UPS would not offer definitive plans for Ragan’s future, the sponsor did offer props Saturday night.
“We’re very proud to have David Ragan as UPS Racing’s brand ambassador and are excited to congratulate him on his first win,” said Ron Rogowski, UPS vice president, sponsorships & events. Under Blickensderfer’s direction, Ragan, 25, has made solid gains this season. “Coming back here and to get that win here at Daytona is that extra little bit that I wanted,” Ragan said. “Kind of to show the Daytona race track ‘Here’s what we’ve got.’
POINTS HIT
The No. 99 Ford team refused to quit Saturday night, but a chain of unfortunate circumstances resulted in Carl Edwards losing the points lead to Kevin Harvick.
Edwards had a 25-point advantage over Harvick entering the weekend. Trevor Bayne, winner of this year’s Daytona 500, completed just four laps before becoming the first casualty in Saturday’s race.
6 — Number of cautions in Saturday night's race (for 24 laps).
8 — Drivers that have won for Jack Roush in the Sprint Cup Series.
57 — Lead changes — a new summer Daytona race record, breaking the previous mark of 49 (1974).
124 — Wins for Roush Fenway Racing.
1 st - David Ragan
2 nd - Matt Kenseth
10 th - AJ Allmendinger
16 th - David Gilliland
17 th - Marcos Ambrose
18 th - Greg Biffle
37 th - Carl Edwards
· David Ragan won his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race with today's win.
· Today's win is the fifth of the season for Ford Racing, which is one more than all of last season.
· The win is the 124th all-time NSCS win for Roush Fenway Racing.
DAVID RAGAN - No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion - VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW - "This is fun. We delivered a win for UPS. It's a great points night. I have to thank Matt Kenseth, my Ford teammate worked well together." Matt pushed me to the finish line. There's not a better night to win.
MATT KENSETH - No. 17 Affliction Clothing Ford Fusion - "It was a great win for the company, a great win for Roush Fenway Racing. I want to thank Affliction for being on the car these last few races and Crown Royal for all their support as well. David did a great job. We had real fast cars." HOW WAS THE RACING? I'm really happy for David and that group. It was a cool race."
GREG BIFFLE - No. 16 3M Ford Fusion - "I'm really excited for David. We had great cars tonight. Carl and I just got caught up racing too hard too early.
TREVOR BAYNE - No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion - "At the beginning of the race we didn't really have a plan of who we were gonna work with. The other Ford cars had teammates already and we were gonna work on whoever we found and we worked with the 33 car at first and we were really fast. It happens all the time, but it's tough that it was our car. This time, they already had that planned before they got here, so you don't even have a chance if you have a single-car team. DID YOU HAVE A CAR THAT COULD WIN? The four Hendrick cars had to team up on us to get by me and Clint Bowyer, so I knew we had a good race car and it qualified really well. We're still right there. WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR CAR? We were gonna go out there and race a little harder this time. If you take the last five restrictor plate races and average them out, we've done really well. THOUGHTS ON DAVID WINNING. "A lot of guys wrecked (laughing).
MATT KENSETH PRESS CONFERENCE - "We had really fast cars together. It's almost like those two cars are one car, so, in a way, I feel like we won. That was good, but our cars were really fast together. I'm glad it worked out. The two speedway races have been disasters so far, so I'm happy to not get wrecked tonight and finish second."
I couldn't have made a move on David, one car on one car without Joey splitting us and winning the race, so I just stayed behind David. I mean, when he came in here and started driving the 6 car, I don't know David's whole racing history, but he didn't have a lot of experience, especially driving big, heavy cars. I mean, they've had really fast cars. I thought that was gonna be our chance for one of us to win. They've been faster in practice and they've been racing better, qualifying better, so they've been improving and it's really hard to win at this level.
DAVID GILLILAND - No. 34 Taco Bell Ford Fusion - "Our guys did a great job this weekend.
TRAVIS KVAPIL - No. 38 Long John Silver's Ford Fusion - "We had a pretty good race car. I had a pretty good car. I think there are 30 guys that can win this race. We went through practice and felt good about our race car, qualified great, the team did a nice job with our car. When we qualified, that's probably the first time I really felt like we've got a car that's fast enough that we can win this thing if we make the right decisions throughout the race, so we made a pact with our teammate Matt Kenseth that we were gonna work together through thick or thin. Sometimes falling to the back and to the front you get jammed up through the race, so I didn't know if that was the right decision or not, but the bottom line is our car was fast and that's what wins these races. You've got to have a little bit of luck. I'm happy about the win.
JACK ROUSH, Car Owner - "I'm really happy to be here with Drew and David. They've worked really hard and they're a great team. I said, 'Man, if we don't win this thing, I'm not gonna want to talk to anyone afterwards.' We were able to win. WHAT MAKES YOU SO GOOD AT THIS TRACK AND AT TANDEM RACING? We've had some top 10s and top 5s, but I think the biggest part is we've had good race cars. The race cars are good that I drive. You don't know what to do, you don't know what's gonna happen, if we're gonna have another green-white-checkered. I wasn't gonna run in the grass."
"If Jack will rent me a little space over at the shop, I've run out of room. I've got an appearance in Atlanta on Monday, so we've got to work Monday.
DAVID RAGAN CONTINUED - CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR FAMILY TIES IN RACING? Jack Smith drove some races for him, so that ultimately is how my father and his brothers got around the race track at a young age, so they started racing some. The Daytona 500 is our biggest race of the year. Even though this race pays the same amount of points as winning Kentucky or New Hampshire or Pocono or any others, but it is a special race and I'm very fortunate to get our first win here."
JACK ROUSH CONTINUED - WILL FUEL INJECTION HAVE ANY IMPACT ON HOW RACING WILL BE HERE IN FEBRUARY?
DREW BLICKENSDERFER CONTINUED - WHAT IS THE STRATEGY FOR THESE RACES? David and our partner tonight, Matt, they both like to be towards the front. So our plan all along was if we can see the front, we're gonna try to stay there.
No comments:
Post a Comment