FYI WIRZ: NASCAR's David Ragan delivers for UPS, Denny Hamlin brings FedEx

Many shipping firms and package customers across the U.S know that UPS and FedEx deliver, but so do National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) drivers David Ragan (UPS) and Denny Hamlin (FedEx).

Both Hamlin and Ragan have one Sprint Cup win this season win and are contending for a spot in the Chase to the Sprint Cup, the NASCAR championship.
   
Their delivery sponsors, USP and FedEx, have to be pleased with the national exposure a NASCAR win generates.     

Ragan enhanced his value considerably by getting his first Sprint Cup win at Daytona in July and UPS seems ready to support him going forward.
  
“We’re very proud to have David Ragan as UPS Racing’s brand ambassador and are excited to congratulate him on his first win,” said Ron Rogowski, UPS vice president, sponsorships & events. “David has a great future ahead of him and we look forward to many more trips to victory lane with him.”

Ragan connects with his UPS supporters.

“Hundreds of thousands—there's UPS workers all over the country,” Ragan said. “I can relate to a lot of them. They work hard. They're passionate about their jobs. You won't find any other employee base that's more loyal to the company they work for than UPS. They're very well-respected, they're trustworthy.”

Hamlin eagerly talked about his relationship with FedEx workers too. 

“FedEx’s sponsorship is a lot employee-driven in the sense that the employees love the racing program and if it wasn’t for the employees we probably wouldn’t have this racing program at FedEx,” Hamlin said. “They love racing. They do this for team morale, they do it for their employees and that says a big statement. FedEx is such a tight family when it comes to them taking care of the employees.”

Now that NASCAR’s most desirable free agent, Carl Edwards, has signed with Roush Fenway Racing with some help from Ford Racing, team management can concentrate on renewing UPS sponsorship with a new contract for David Ragan.

At a UPS store in Bloomingdale, Fla., FYI WIRZ discovered that manager Daniel wanted to know how negotiations were going with UPS to renew Ragan’s contract for 2012. That question was asked to David Ragan.

“As far as the UPS negotiations, that's between the management of Roush Fenway Racing and UPS,” Ragan said. “I think they're going well. I look forward to some good things to come down the road. All I can think about is doing my job on the racetrack, working with my team. I have faith everything is going to work out good.”

By the time you read these lines, Ragan may have put ink to paper for a Roush Fenway contract extension with UPS aboard or will shortly. Nothing is guaranteed until all the signatures are in place, but the prevailing spirit seems to point to a deal about done.  

FYI WIRZ is the select presentation of topics by Dwight Drum @ Racetake.com. 

Unless otherwise noted, quotes and information were obtained from official release materials provided by NASCAR and team representatives.

Photo credit: Dwight Drum at Racetake.com