UPS definitely has one of the most recognizable slogans in Nascar. "What can brown do for you" was the question decaled on the back of their race cars since their 2003 campaign with Dale Jarrett's No. 88 Ford. But, recent years, they have had very little success on the racetrack and the answer to that question seemed to be "not much."
After leaving Michael Waltrip Racing's No. 44 car to join David Ragan's No. 6 team in 2009, it looked as if the package delivery giant had made a huge mistake. That season, Ragan scored just one top ten in his new brown Ford, while David Reutimann (UPS driver at MWR for most of the 2008 season) scored ten top tens along with his first cup victory. The No. 6 team's luck continued in that same vein through the 2011 Daytona 500.
It seemed as if Ragan had the race locked up until he changed lanes before the start-finish line on the race's final restart. He was forced to do a pass through penalty, ending any chance at victory and allowing 18 year old rookie Trevor Bayne to score the win in the Wood Brother's historic No. 21 Ford.
This seemed to light a fire under this team. They scored four top tens in the first sixteen races this season and raced their way into the Sprint All Star Race by winning the transfer race held prior to the main event. The entire Roush-Fenway organization appeared to be on the upswing and this time the No. 6 car was no exception.
The cup series returned to Daytona Saturday night and it looked like the Fords were going to be tough to beat. Blue oval drivers Marcos Ambrose and AJ Allmedninger were first and second respectively in the lone practice session held Thursday afternoon. The next two Fords in line were Ragan and teammate Mat Kenseth. The Ford teams strength held up through qualifying as well, as Trevor Bayne scored second starting spot and Ragan netted fifth. All that was left to do now was to line them up and let them race.
Mark Markin led the field to green and it didn't take long for the race to get exciting. Trevor Bayne started second, but with the new two car tandem style of drafting it was near impossible for the Daytona 500 winner to stay up front with no teammate. He found Brad Keselowski in the middle of the pack and when the two hooked up in turns one and two on lap five, Keselowski turned Bayne into the outside wall. Bayne would not sweep the Daytona races and was relegated to a 41st place finish.
That was the only caution for the majority of the rest of the race. But the race didn't need the plethora of yellow flags we normally see in Daytona because the racing grew more intense and exciting with each passing lap. Kenseth and Ragan were big players, racing in the lead pack for most of the night, along with Red Bull teammates Kasey Kahne and Brian Vickers and Michael Waltrip Racing stablemates Martin Truex, Jr and David Reutimann. The Hendrick Motorsports foursome, also expected to be strong, played it conservative and hung at the back of the field all night.
But the complexion of the race really changed on the first green-white-checkered attempt. Because of the two car pack drafting, the drivers fight to hook back up with their partners right after the green flag waves before everything can thin back out a little, usually causing problems for everyone else. This proved true again when Mark Martin tried to move in front of Joey Logano before he had him cleared, spinning Martin's car and taking about nine others with him. Among the wreckage were Truex's No. 56, Reutimann's No. 00 and Vicker's No. 83. Logano raced on, but he had learned a hard lesson that most Florida drivers probably found out the same way. You never do know when that old man driving in front of you will change lanes without signaling.
David Ragan led the field on the following restart and quickly got hooked up with teammate Matt Kenseth. These two checked out, chased by Logano and Kasey Kahne. Logano's tandem did wrestle the lead away from Ragan's, but the two Roush-Fenway teammates quickly got it back and as fifteen other cars wrecked behind them, Kenseth pushed Ragan across the line first and the Unidilla, Gerogia native won his first cup race at Nascar's biggest track and erased any doubt that may have arisen in February about his ability to find victory lane. This was also UPS's first win since Dale Jarrett won the October Talladega race back in 2005.
Most people in the Nascar media said that David Ragan would be the next first time winner in the cup series. It wold just be a matter of time. He's silenced all his critics and proved that his No. 6 team is no longer the lame duck team at Roush-Fenway Racing. Now it's on to the Kentucky Speedway for a sold out Saturday night shootout among the Sprint Cup Series racers. Michael Waltrip will also make a rare appearance to not only race in the first cup race in his home state, but to honor his brother Darrell's recent induction into Nascar's Hall of Fame.
Both brother's are from Owensboro, Kentucky, so Kentucky Speedway was the track where Darrell made his first stock car start and where he scored his first win in 1975. Michael will run a paint scheme on his No. 15 Toyota paying homage to that winning Terminal Transport car and featuring DW's picture on the hood and the family picture from that '75 victory lane celebration on the quarter panels. Will a Waltrip return to Kentucky's victory lane? Or will we once again see what brown can do for Daivd Ragan in the Bluegrass State? We'll find out after 400 miles on Saturday night.
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