Car owner Jack Roush figures up-and-coming NASCAR Cup driver David Ragan just as easily could have been a crew chief.
“Robert Yates (the longtime engine builder and car owner who retired at the end of this season) got us interested in David,” said Roush, who’s Roush Fenway Racing organization owns four Cup teams. “We were doing one of our driver’s tests with the trucks and David was there. Well, there was some commotion there between the crew and drivers, so I figured I’d better have a look-see.
“It was David, telling the crew chiefs what to do with the spring and chassis setups. He knew as much about those things as the crew chiefs did. I had to tell him, they were there to get their job done, just like he was expected to drive. I didn’t know if I had a driver or a crew chief on my hands.
“It’s something he has had to learn.”
Ragan, 22, figures it was a lesson he learned in 2007 when he competed for Raybestos Rookie of the Year honors in the Busch and Cup series.
On Nov. 21 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Ragan was honored at a Raybestos luncheon, along with Willie Allen (Craftsman Truck) and Juan Pablo Montoya (Cup), as the top rookie in the Busch ranks.
According to Camp & Associates’ Jimmy White, who has become NASCAR’s “Mr. Rookie,” Ragan, son of Ken Ragan, the former Cup-ARCA driver from Unadilla, Ga., who now runs the 600 Racing program for legends cars out of Harrisburg, N.C., David Ragan came awful close to wrapping up both the Cup and Busch rookie titles.
He would have been the first to do that. Ragan finished 24 points behind Montoya.
“David had his opportunity to take both titles,” White said. “But it seems, when Montoya would slip up opening the door for Ragan, that’s when Ragan would have troubles, too. David just couldn’t close the deal when he needed to do so.”
Since Raybestos brand brakes became the title sponsor of the NASCAR rookie program in 1998 in Cup, Busch and trucks, 10 Roush Fenway drivers have become rookie of the year. Ragan gives Roush his third consecutive rookie title in the Busch Series and fourth since 2001.
“He’s the youngest I’ve dealt with,” Roush said. “But he knows a lot for his age.”
Ragan was given the task of driving the No. 6 Fords for Roush Fenway, the same car number utilized by Mark Martin for so many years.
“Now I’m sure everyone is aware of how I feel about that No. 6 and how important it is to me, but I’ve had no regrets of putting David into that car,” Roush said. “I think we are just beginning to see and recognize the talent he possesses.
“(Greg) Biffle, (Kurt) Busch and (Carl) Edwards all were older when I was dealing with them as rookies than David.”  
Ragan says he and veteran crew chief Jimmy Fennig are set to make a run for a championship in 2008.
“We already have five or six of the new cars ready to go,” Ragan said. “We’re way ahead of last year at this time.”
Ragan could have been a pretty fair football player if he had decided to follow that sport in high school at Unadilla instead of following his dad in auto racing. His uncle, Marvin, who now runs a small speedway near Cordele, Ga., also was active in motorsports during David’s younger years.
Ragan said the one thing his father taught him growing up was to always believe in what he thought was right.
“I guess, that’s something I’m having to learn the hard way,” David Ragan said. “I’ve got to start listening to these crew chiefs to be a better driver.”