David Ragan

David Ragan, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford

Starting Position: 31

Finishing Position: 23

David Ragan and the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford team earned their third straight top-25 finish Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway.  The team's don't-give-up attitude and a strong performance by the MHP Pit Crew were the two biggest factors to play into the day's result.

Ragan took the green flag in 31st position after the team made multiple changes to the car race-day morning.  The moves helped, although the driver reported in the early laps that his car was too "loose" to pass anyone.  Crew chief Jay Guy ordered adjustments on a yellow-flag pit stop on Lap 40 and, from there, the team kept working to improve all day long.  At the Lap-80 mark and still in 31st, Ragan reported the car was handling better than it had been all weekend.

With few cautions on the day -- the only big wreck was a seven-car accident on Lap 24 -- the No. 34 team had to fight to pick off positions wherever they could. One of those places was pit road, where the MHP Pit Crew helped Ragan gain multiple positions on several pit stops. Approaching the midpoint of the race, the team was sitting in 27th.  

In the second half of the race, the team kept tweaking the set-up to make the car as competitive as possible, as they were racing four other cars on the same lap and fighting to grab their positions.  They kept gaining spots both on the track and on pit road to take the final restart of the race (Lap 483) in 25th and grabbed two more spots to cross the finish line in 23rd.  The team gained a spot in the owner points also, moving up to 29th going into next week's race in Fontana, Calif.

Comments from Front Row Motorsports team driver David Ragan after the Bristol race:

"Well, I think we turned a not-so-great-handling car into something a little bit more competitive today.  We made some changes this morning and got a little bit more speed in the car and were able to race hard.  Our MHP Pit Crew really did a good job all afternoon and helped us on pit road a lot.  That's probably the difference between a top-25 and not.  But we've still got a lot to work on for when we come back here in the fall."

David Gilliland

David Gilliland, No. 38 Taco Bell Ford

Starting Position: 26

Finishing Position: 26

David Gilliland finished the Food City 500 exactly where he started -- in 26th position -- which isn't a bad day's work on one of NASCAR's most grueling tracks.

The first green-flag run of the race was indicative of how the afternoon would play out, with very little passing and drivers trying to find an edge to move up in the field.  Gilliland was still in his initial position of 26th when the first caution flag flew at Lap 23 for a seven-car accident.  He brought the No. 38 Taco Bell Ford Fusion down pit road for two tires and fuel and went back to work at the Lap-46 restart.    

The car had good speed and Gilliland held his position in the pack, but he kept asking for help getting through the turns better in order to make some gains on the field.  And he made some progress, stepping up to 23rd position by Lap 240.  The MHP Pit crew had gained him some additional ground on a Lap-246, green-flag pit stop, but Gilliland got tagged by NASCAR for exiting the pits too fast and had to serve a pass-through penalty.  At the half-way mark, he was once again in 26th.

The 38 team did some "trial and error" in the second half of the race, trying to run different lines around the track and making some changes that helped the car in some ways and hurt in others.  But all the while, Gilliland raced hard against the other cars on his lap and protected his position.  After flirting with the top-25, he finished just outside in 26th.

Comments from Taco Bell team driver David Gilliland after the Bristol race:

"We tried a lot of different things on our Taco Bell Ford Fusion today.  We were able to hold our own and race guys competitively, but we weren't able to free it up as much as we needed to, especially on new tires.  But our MHP Pit Crew had another good day and helped us out, and we'll definitely have a lot more to go on when we come back here later this year." 

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