10 Questions: D. Ragan

1. What do you feel is your biggest strength?

Ragan: Having an experienced and well-rounded crew around me. The AAA group on pit road and in the garage can be compared to the best here.

2. What's the best advice you ever received and who was it from?

David Ragan:
Yellow

Ragan: It's probably between my dad and Jack Roush. My dad always tells me to drive it as hard as you can, to the limit, where you know you're not going to wreck. If you know you can drive it to that limit and you know you're comfortable without taking a chance and jeopardizing the racing equipment, that's where you need to be. And Jack, he tells me all the time, "Hey, you've got the job. Now you've just got to keep it for the next 20 years. Instead of going out there and trying to do something spectacular, try to be conservative and look forward to the future."

3. What's your favorite stretch of road to drive?

Ragan: Probably Highway 41 between my grandparents' house and my house in south Georgia. I was driving that in a '48 Willis Army jeep when I was 12 years old, so that's the most relaxing one.

4. What's your favorite TV show?

Ragan: Everyone's going to laugh, but I'm kind of an old-school guy. I like ESPN and SPEED Channel, but I'm an Andy Griffith fan. I like Andy Griffith.

5. Which athlete outside of racing do you admire most?

Ragan: Keith Brooking, linebacker for the Atlanta Falcons. He played at Georgia Tech. He's a great athlete and a great spokesperson for the National Football League.

6. What's your favorite pizza topping?

Ragan: I'm pretty normal. Pepperoni and or mushrooms.

7. What's on the top of your "things to accomplish" list?

Ragan: I've got a little notebook of short-term things to accomplish -- just running around, taking care of this. Probably the No. 1 thing non-racing related is to get back home and cut my grass and finish raking the leaves out of my yard.

8. If you took somebody out to eat in your hometown of Unadilla, Ga., where would you go and what would you order?

Ragan: There's nothing much to eat in Unadilla, except for like a Subway and a Dairy Queen. I'd probably just take them to my grandmother's house. She always wants to cook something for somebody, whether you come in at 10 o'clock at night or leaving at 6 o'clock in the morning. I'd probably take somebody to my grandma's house and she'd cook whatever they wanted.

9. Who would you trade places with, and why?

Ragan: I wouldn't trade places with anybody. I might trade places with Jack Roush. He's an incredible guy, he's the Boss Man. He gets to fly his own plane around and everybody says "yes, sir" or "no, sir" to him. But I'm living a dream. Every day's Christmas and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

10. What was your first car?

Ragan: A '93 Ford Ranger. A buddy of mine's got it right now and it's still running good. It has close to 200,000 miles on it and it's still running good.