No. 34 Team Takes Winning Talladega Car to Daytona
STATESVILLE, N.C. (July 2, 2013) – David Ragan will go to Daytona International Speedway this week with a standout partner and a car that knows how to find Victory Lane. The bright yellow and green colors of Peanut Patch Boiled Peanuts return to the No. 34 Ford this weekend in NASCAR’s first race at a restrictor plate track since Ragan’s dramatic win at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway on May 5.
Retail partner Winn Dixie will join Peanut Patch on the car for Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 on the 2.5-mile superspeedway.
Ragan’s No. 34 Ford Fusion for the 400-mile race will be the same car that surged to the front on the final lap of the Talladega race to capture Front Row Motorsports’ first win in team history.
“We’re excited for Peanut Patch to be on the same car Front Row Motorsports driver David Ragan drove at Talladega,” said Woody Swink, regional director of sales and owner of McCall Farms. “And hoping yellow and green make its way into Victory Lane this time at the upcoming Coke Zero 400 in Daytona this weekend.”
The 27-year-old driver has been to Victory Lane at Daytona before, too, earning his first Sprint Cup Series win at the Coke Zero 400 in July 2011. He has 13 total starts at the track, with one win, three top-fives and four top-10s.
Comments from Peanut Patch team driver David Ragan heading to Daytona:
“Absolutely, we’re eager to get to Daytona. We’re taking our same car to the Fourth of July Coke Zero 400 that we won with in Talladega. Restrictor plate races are difficult, in a sense. You can very much get caught up in a wreck not of your doing pretty quick. So we just want to make sure it’s handling well and we’ve got a good strategy. There is some element of luck involved in winning those races. But if we can be around at the end and have a good handling car, we’ll have a shot to win again.
“The end of restrictor plate races are crazy. Everybody gets aggressive and there’s no give-and-take. Track position means a lot. If you’re running 25th on the white-flag lap, you’re not going to have a chance to win. You’ve got to be in the top five or six or seven cars to win, and we all know that. So, about 15 or 20 laps to go, everyone stops giving and taking some, everyone gets very aggressive and you set yourself up for those final few laps with about 20 laps to go.
“We’re bringing Peanut Patch with Winn Dixie to Daytona with us. Peanut Patch has been a loyal partner of Front Row Motorsports over the past two seasons, and they stepped up to be on our car at Daytona. Obviously, because of our Talladega win, there will probably be a lot of eyes on our No. 34 Ford, and with the bright yellow and green paint scheme, it will be hard to miss. We’re looking forward to getting Peanut Patch and Winn Dixie some attention at Daytona and maybe even getting them into Victory Lane.”
About Front Row Motorsports:
Front Row Motorsports fields the No. 34 of David Ragan, the No. 38 of David Gilliland and the No. 35 of Josh Wise in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The team is owned by Bob Jenkins and is headquartered just outside of Charlotte, N.C. In 2012, FRM was named to INC Magazine’s “INC 5000” list, recognizing the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S., earning a rank of 800. Its partnership base is representative of more than $200 billion of the U.S. economy and includes organizations such as Ford Motor Company, CSX Transportation, Love’s Travel Stops, McCall Farms, Taco Bell, and Long John Silver’s. For sponsorship inquiries, contact Robin Johnson at rjohnson@frontrowmotorsports.com or Mike Laheta at mlaheta@frontrowmotorsports.com.
