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After False Start, Ragan Finds His Way

Associated Press photo

David Ragan signs autographs for fans during qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Pocono 500 auto race in Long Pond, PA on June 6.

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By TONY FABRIZIO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 18, 2008

Tony Stewart called him "a dart without feathers." Other veterans fumed.

David Ragan made no friends in a premature and disastrous Sprint Cup start at Martinsville in October 2006. Instead, he got blamed for holding up faster cars and causing at least three wrecks.

Twenty months later, Ragan, now 22, has put his inauspicious beginning well behind him.

Halfway through his second full season in Roush Fenway Racing's famed No. 6 Ford, the lanky Georgian with a soft drawl is challenging for victories and is within striking distance of a berth in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

"I'm really proud of David this year," said Mark Martin, who drove the No. 6 car for 19 years and pitched Ragan as his replacement. "I think he represents the No. 6 car very well. It wouldn't be shocking to see him win a race in the near future."

Ragan flirted with victory last Sunday at Michigan. He gave up the lead with eight laps remaining to take a splash of fuel, and he finished eighth. Earlier this spring, he finished fourth at Martinsville - yes, Martinsville - and fifth at Charlotte.

Greg Biffle, one of Ragan's four Roush Fenway teammates, agrees with Martin.

"The thing that's helped him a lot is he's run also in the Nationwide Series full-time," Biffle said. "That really does a lot for a guy, getting in all those races. I've done it a couple of times, run both series, and you gain a lot of experience in a short amount of time."

The son of former NASCAR and ARCA driver Ken Ragan and part of a tight-knit family, David Ragan spent his early years in the south Georgia town of Unadilla. He moved to Atlanta when Ken took a job running a Legends roadsters program at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and David began racing Bandolero miniature cars at age 11.

With Ken's backing and, later, help from Martin, David raced Legends roadsters at Atlanta and Charlotte.

He also made several ARCA starts as a teenager after catching the eye of NASCAR team owner Robert Yates, and he shared a Craftsman Truck Series ride with Martin in 2006.

When he was named to drive the No. 6 car, Ragan had not spent a full season in a stock car series.

"We knew he was going to be in over his head, and I think Jack Roush knew that, too, because the only thing we could afford to do with him when he was racing out of our budget was to run these Bandoleros and Legends," Ken Ragan said Tuesday from Harrisburg, N.C., where he works for the company that builds the entry-level cars.

"We missed all of that in-between stuff, like the late models and all."

The infamous Martinsville race, which came a week after Roush named him to drive the No. 6 car in 2007, was actually David Ragan's second Sprint Cup start. He ran the Dover race a few weeks earlier and crashed out.

Getting blasted by Stewart wasn't the only indignity Ragan suffered after the Martinsville race. NASCAR officials refused to let him race the following week at Atlanta, saying he wasn't ready for a mile-and-a-half track.

He didn't run another Cup race until the 2007 Daytona 500.

"To be thrown in so quickly was tough, but I think it was the right thing," Ragan said two weeks ago at Pocono. "You find out pretty quickly whether you have the determination and the skills and the mindset to go out and make changes week after week and try to improve on your performance."

Ken Ragan never got to drive for a major team. Well-liked in the racing community, he made 50 starts in NASCAR's top division and never finished better than 11th. He broke his neck (second cervical vertebrae) in a crash at Talladega in 1987, wore a halo for six weeks, and came back to race at Michigan that season.

In his mind, there was never a question his son should take the No. 6 ride.

"I always told David, 'If they offer you something like that, don't turn it down, because you might wind up with something less,'" he said. "When you get up into the Cup series, you don't want something less. You want something that's equal to what Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart and all those top runners have."

David Ragan had a so-so 2007 season, scoring two top-five finishes but crashing several times and winding up 23rd in the standings. He finished second to Juan Montoya for Rookie of the Year honors.

But this year, Ragan and the Jimmy Fennig-led No. 6 team have been consistent. Ragan has finished every race since crashing in the season-opening Daytona 500. In the last seven races, his only finish outside the top 20 is a 24th at Pocono.

"We're just not making many mistakes, and we have better race cars - it's as simple as that," Ragan said.

Ken Ragan, who still "coaches" his son and attends all his races with David's mother, Beverly, believes David is on his way to a respectable career.

"I don't know that he'll make a Jeff Gordon or a Dale Earnhardt Jr., but I think he's going to surprise a lot of people," he said. "I think he's already surprised a lot of people."

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