JOLIET, Ill. (July 10, 2010) –  The UPS Freight Ford Fusion made its first appearance of the season at Chicagoland Speedway and the sliver car was fast under the lights Saturday night. Ragan qualified 26^th and as the sun set during the race the handling on his UPS Freight Ford continued to improve. Long green-flag runs and lightning-fast pit stops got him the handling adjustments and track position he needed to ultimately earn a 12^th-place finish, while David Reutimann won the LifeLock.com 400.

 

David took the green flag from his 26^th-place starting position and did not take long to realize his UPS Freight Ford was a little too tight through the center of the turns. The first caution came out 39 laps into the race and crew chief Donnie Wingo brought Ragan down pit road for four tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment. Over the next long green-flag run Ragan made up some positions on the track, but as the sun peaked out from behind the clouds it made the UPS Freight Ford freer and freer. 

 

On lap 92 Ragan came in under green for a routine pit stop. Wingo gave him four tires and fuel and sent him back on the track. With evening quickly approaching he did not want to make any drastic adjustments knowing the handling would change as the sun set. Ragan worked his way up to 17^th when the caution came out for debris on the track. With the sun still setting Ragan pitted for just four new tires and fuel. 

 

Ragan worked his way up into the top 15, but as the sun set his Ford continued to be a little too free and slide the nose up off the corners. Ragan cycled through pit road two additional times for fuel and a track bar adjustment. All improved his handling, but with the field spread out as much as it was from the long green-flag runs he could only pass a few cars at the end. While turning fast lap times Ragan crossed the finish line 12^th and moved up one spot in the points standings to 25^th.

 

“Our UPS Freight Ford was pretty fast and I was pretty happy with it,” said Ragan.  “We just ran and ran and ran and passed cars and passed cars and we were still 15th each time, so that was a little frustrating. We’ll have to work on our qualifying effort some. The last three or four weeks we’ve had a top-15 car and it was certainly good to see Carl up there trying to win the thing. Our cars were fast tonight, but we still have to get them better. We’re making progress, but at the same time, everyone else is also making progress. It was good to see some Fords up there in the top 10. We’ll have the week off to think about this race and then we’ll head to Indy to try and get one.”