Rick Minter's OBSERVATIONS

Ragan lands a sponsor

David Ragan has received a vote of NASCAR confidence from UPS, which rewarded the Georgia driver and his Roush Fenway team with a sponsorship deal. David Ragan came close to making the Chase in his sophomore season before a wreck at Richmond, normally one of his best tracks, took him out of the running.

But he got a nice consolation prize the following week. Atlantabased UPS chose a fellow Georgian, Unadilla's Ragan, as its new driver to sponsor.

In picking Ragan, UPS gets a driver and a team, Roush Fenway Racing, that is poised to deliver the kind of results that Jarrett and Robert Yates did when the shipping giant became a car sponsor in 2001. In the first three seasons, Jarrett and UPS visited Victory Lane seven times. There has been one victory — by Jarrett in 2005 — since.

Jarrett carried the UPS sponsorship to Michael Waltrip's Toyota team last year, but the team hasn't been that competitive, other than a few strong runs by the car's current driver, David Reutimann.

Ron Rogowski, director of sponsorship for UPS, told reporters at New Hampshire that he believes he has found another winner, even though Ragan has yet to score a victory at NASCAR's highest levels.

"We look forward to next year and being in Victory Lane," he said. "Our people and our customers have always been very competitive, and we think David epitomizes and comes right in and can help us replace Dale, if that's even possible, given Dale's iconic position within the sport."

Sorenson to come under scrutiny

Reed Sorenson's performance next season in Gillett Evernham Dodges will go a long way toward answering the question of whether his current employer, Chip Ganassi, needs to improve his cars or simply pick better drivers.

Since Ganassi, a perennial winner in openwheel racing, came to NASCAR in 2001, he has won just six races, four with the veteran Sterling Marlin, who was already with the team when Ganassi bought into Felix Sabates' operation. Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya won one each.

Marlin finished third in points in 2001 and was on pace to win the championship in 2002 when he led the standings for 25 weeks before an injury ended his run.

McMurray, who drives for Roush Fenway Racing, which has three drivers in the Chase, actually had better points finishes at Ganassi (13th, 11th and 12th) than he has in the past two seasons at Roush Fenway (25th and 17th).

Casey Mears, who

spent the past two seasons with the powerful Hendrick Motorsports team, winner of the past two titles, had a better points finish in his final season at Ganassi (14th in 2006) than he did at Hendrick last year (15th).

SPRINT CUP STANDINGS

1. Carl Edwards 5,220; leader 2. Jimmie Johnson 5,220; leader 3. Greg Biffle 5,190; behind: -30 4. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 5,170; behind: -50 5. Jeff Burton 5,170; behind: -50 6. Denny Hamlin 5,148; behind: -72 7. Tony Stewart 5,147; behind: -73 8. Kyle Busch 5,146; behind: -74 9. Clint Bowyer 5,137; behind: -83 10. Kevin Harvick 5,134; behind: -86 11. Jeff Gordon 5,121; behind: -99 12. Matt Kenseth 5,043; behind: -177