Ragan hopes to rediscover magic with new crew chief (cont'd)

Roush pointed out that his entire stable of drivers struggled for the most part a year ago. He said Roush Fenway as a company spent too much time and money searching to find "that big home run" to take their cars to the next level, only to discover the hard way that perhaps no such grand slam exists with NASCAR's new car.

"David Ragan didn't forget how to drive a car. We just didn't get it right for him," Roush said. "And by the way, we didn't get 'em right for most of the year for Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle or Jamie McMurray, either. We were just off our game, and [the 6 team] was a part of that."

A year ago, Roush insisted that if Ragan didn't win some Cup races during the 2009 season, the young driver "would be the victim of unbelievable bad luck or mismanagement on my part if we let that happen. I'm determined not to mismanage him and hopefully the luck will work out for us."

Ragan admitted then he "would be devastated" if he didn't win some races. Well, he did win two -- in the Nationwide Series. But he never came close in Cup, which Ragan admits caused him some sleepless nights.

"It was devastating. If it wasn't for a couple of those Nationwide wins, it would have been an even harder year than it was," said Ragan, who ended up 27th in points last season. "I think Jack summed it up best when he said we got so concerned about hitting that next big home run that we weren't as concerned about getting those singles and doubles that we should have been getting.

"These cars haven't changed a whole lot in two years. I don't think you're going to see many more of those big home-run changes on suspensions and things like you used to see. We've got to tweak on what we've got."

Nonetheless, there were times last season when Ragan wondered if it was only the car and he could not prevent some self-doubt from creeping in. It was only natural.

His feeling now is that going through that has only made him stronger mentally heading into this season. It also has increased his determination to leave 2009 in his rear-view mirror and pick up instead where he left off at the end of 2008.

"It was disappointing. I would come home and I wouldn't even want to go out. I wouldn't want to talk to anybody about it," Ragan said. "It was awful -- because you got that little bit of glimpse of how good it was to finish in the top five. You got experience how good it felt to consistently run in the top five, the top 10, and to lead laps. You just thought that everything was that easy.

"Then you realize that this really is as hard as everyone says it is, and you'd better have your ducks in a row -- not only on race day but on Friday and Saturday and every day of the week. So yeah, last year was disappointing. There were a lot of long nights where I didn't want to see the morning come. But like I've said, if we can learn from those things, five years from now we'll be saying we were glad it happened."

Roush insisted that he is as certain of Ragan's driving talent now as when he first signed him in 2006.

"David is ready to be as good in this business as anybody has been," Roush said. "I've just got to get his cars right, and get the inputs that he makes coming out of the car back into the car, reflecting through engineering and preparations of the car. I'm committed to doing that in 2010."

Ragan said he is firmly committed to doing whatever it takes to get better overall results.

"Until last year, it was easy to run in the top 10, the top 15. Last year I would have given my life savings for a top-10 [finish]. That just shows you how competitive this sport is -- and if you're not on top of it, you fall behind pretty quick," Ragan said.

"So hopefully we've learned from our mistakes. We've manned up and we admitted what we did wrong -- and now we go to Daytona tied with everyone else in points, ready to do it all over again."

Related:
• Wingo named crew chief for Ragan, No. 6 team