Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR
2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup season proved to be a real roller coaster ride for David Ragan and his UPS, Roush Racing team. The season started off with a costly mistake by the driver in the Daytona 500, hit a high point mid-season with Ragan's first victory and ended with Ragan out of a ride for 2012. However, at the time of this writing Ragan's ride on the roller coaster may be hitting a high point in the coming days with speculation of him taking over one of the premiere rides in all of the Sprint Cup series.
Statistically, the 2011 season was Ragan's second best out of the five seasons he's competed in NASCAR's Sprint Cup series. However stats don't make up for races that are lost, especially when they are due to errors that could have been prevented. Ragan can attest to that as he was lined up to potentially win the season opening race, the Daytona 500. Ragan and his Ford team overcame having to start at the rear of the field in a backup car to be within just a scant few laps of winning the Great American Race. On the next to last restart, Ragan jumped out of line bringing out a black flag and taking Ragan out of contention for the victory.
Things got better when the series returned to Daytona in July as Ragan took home his first victory ever in NASCAR's Sprint Cup series. Unfortunately, Ragan's inconsistency in 2011 along with not having sponsorship lined up for 2012 forced him out of the #6 car at the end of the year. There is the potential that Ragan may be at the head of the line to take over one of the best cars in the series for 2012. With Kurt Busch losing his ride in Roger Penske's Shell/Pennzoil #22 Dodge, rumors are abound that Ragan is the top pick to take the wheel in 2012. However, nothing has been confirmed as of this posting.
Other than a bad series of mistakes in the 11th race of the season at Dover, Ragan and his UPS crew were able to avoid getting any major penaltys from NASCAR in 2011. In the FedEx 400 at Dover, the crew made the mistake of having too many members over the wall. On the next stop just a handful of laps later, Ragan ran the stop/go sign at the end of pit road. When coming to serve that penalty, Ragan was caught speeding and was penalized yet again. Thankfully, the 6 crew only had one more penalty at Infineon Raceway in the Toyota Save Mart 350 where they were caught with too many members over the wall again. From that point on, Ragan and the team were penalized only once in the remaining 20 events.
2011 Statistics For David Ragan
23rd in Sprint Cup standings
1 win (Coke Zero 400)
4 top 5s
8 top 10s
49 laps led
2011 Penalty Report For David Ragan
Race 1 - Pre-Race to the rear, tail end, backup car; Jumping the restart, pass thru/tail end
Race 2 - Pitting before pit road is open, Tail of the field; Pitting before pit road is open, Garage
Race 8 - Pitting before pit road is open, Garage
Race 10 - Pitting before pit road is open, Tail of Field
Race 11 - Pitting before pit road is open, tail end; Too many crewmember(s) in contact with pit service area, tail end; Running the stop and go sign/light, 1 lap back; Speed-Exiting pits, tail end
Race 16 - Too many crewmember(s) in contact with pit service area, pass thru
Race 22 - Pitting before pit road is open, tail end
Race 35 - Pitting before pit road is open, tail end; Too many crewmember(s) in contact with pit service area, tail end; Pitting before pit road is open, tail end