David Ragan

April 22, 2008 - Double-duty driver David Ragan earned a fourth-place finish at Talladega in last year’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race, en route to his 2007 Raybestos Rookie of the Year title. He talks about returning to the high-banked track and his season to date.

DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 Discount Tire Ford Fusion (Nationwide) / No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion (Sprint Cup) – TALK ABOUT RETURNING TO TALLADEGA. “Our speedway program has always been pretty good and we had a few good finishes last year and this year to start off the year at Daytona with a top-10. I feel like there is no excuse or no reason why we can’t go down and finish in the top-10 or the top-five or contend for a win. Anything can happen there. You’ve got to have some help, you’ve got to have good fortune and good track position all day. I think we’ve worked on our pit crew and we should be able to pick up spots in pits. If we have a fast car we should have plenty of friends. It should be a good weekend. I’m looking forward to it. It’s a good weekend for racing being that it is an impound race for the Cup cars and also an impound race for the Nationwide series. All we have to worry about is our race package. We really don’t have to put a lot of effort into qualifying. We just need to worry about our race car for the race.”

IS IT A TOUGH TRACK BECAUSE OF THE LENGTH AND BANKING? “Not really. It’s not challenging to go fast. It’s all about your car, your engine and just having the right drafting partner in order to go fast. But it’s mentally challenging versus some of the other tracks just because you have to be so patient and you can’t be so aggressive like you can at other tracks. You’ve got to put into account there are 42 other cars probably within a second of you. And you’re all in a tight, tight pack, so it’s not as challenging as some tracks, but when you get out there and your racing it can be pretty tough.”

HAVE YOU FOUND YOUR RHYTHM GOING TO TRACKS THE SECOND TIME? “Yeah, I think so. I think everything is just a little bit easier the second time around. We have some good notes to go off of. We’ve built some really good cars over the off-season and everything should be easier your second time around in whatever you’re doing. It’s good going back to these places and doing the same thing again with the same group of guys, that just makes it all easier.”

DID YOU GO TO TALLADEGA WHEN YOU WERE YOUNGER? “Yes, but the main track we went to was Atlanta, but Talladega has always been a track that my dad raced a lot at and he would certainly go. We’ve been to a few races. Talladega is pretty close to home and a lot of family and friends come over to see the races.”

TALLADEGA HAS A LOT OF HISTORY. DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE MEMORY? “Our first Cup race at Talladega is probably the thing that I’ll remember for a while. We ran up front, we got to lead some laps during the race. I still had a good finish even though we ran out of fuel on the last lap. Probably my first start at Talladega was the most memorable so far.”