ESPN Sprint Cup

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. -- A 1960 Ford Fairlane 500 with fuzzy black dice hanging from the rearview mirror and a front license plate that read "Sheriff Mayberry" wheeled through the winding roads of Cabarrus County.

The driver was careful to maintain his speed, not wanting to draw any more attention than he already had in a black-and-white car that is an exact duplicate of the one used in the "Andy Griffith Show" television series.

He occasionally turned on the red light and siren for interested onlookers when he stopped at an intersection or a filling station, but for the most part he played it low-key.

"I'm pretty careful," the driver said. "I don't want to get into any trouble with the local sheriff department."

The driver wasn't Sheriff Andy Taylor or Deputy Barney Fife, although he does own a deputy's cap like the one Don Knotts made famous in the 1960s hit series. It was Sprint Cup driver David Ragan taking a casual spin around the countryside.

"You get a lot of looks when you're out in this," he said.

Ragan got a lot of looks on the track last season, as well, and they seldom were good.

Then a rookie for Roush Fenway Racing in the No. 6 car made famous by Mark Martin, he was involved in more crashes and spins in 36 races than anybody on the circuit.

Twenty-two in all. Six more than Robby Gordon and five more than J.J. Yeley had to lead the series the year before.

Ragan was so out of control at times that his nickname could have been "Trouble in Turn 2." Two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart once called him a "dart without feathers."

"It was Kyle Busch kind of trouble," team owner Jack Roush said. "He was just trying to win every lap initially and pass every car that was within reach without a proper respect of what goes with that."

That's not the case this season. The 22-year-old from Unadilla, Ga., has only one crash in the first five races, none since he got into teammate Matt Kenseth in the opener at Daytona.

He's completed all but four of 1,348 laps over the past four races and has finished no worse than 23rd to move to 21st in the points standings. His numbers are even more impressive in the Nationwide Series, where he has completed all 841 laps and is fourth in the standings behind stars Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and Carl Edwards.

"I haven't seen him sliding around and spinning through the grass as much, so that's a good sign," two-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson said.

That has helped reduce Ragan's phone bill. A year ago, he called every competitor he wrecked or had a close call with to apologize.

"When you make mistakes you can't point fingers at other people and blame somebody else," Ragan said. "You've got to take the heat and move on."

Dale Jarrett, who grew up racing against Ragan's father, wishes more young drivers showed that respect. He marvels at the improvement Ragan has made since the two got into a minor scrape last year at Martinsville.

"I think he felt he had something to prove quickly," the 1999 Cup champion said. "I saw a lot of difference in him at the end of last year and he's a completely different driver this year. He seems very comfortable with who he is and with what he can do."

Ragan, who will spend an off weekend on the Cup schedule competing in the Nationwide event at Nashville, said it's all about experience.

"Last year, if I got into a car that was loose, I didn't know how loose I could drive it or how far I could race it into the corner and race other guys," he said. "I didn't know how hard you could race other people in general.

"I've changed a little bit, and certainly for the good. Anytime you make your second time around you should be better."

More relaxed
Ragan relaxed on the couch in his hauler last weekend during a rain delay at Bristol. There wasn't the sense of panic he might have had a year ago because he was missing track time on a surface where he brought out three of the 15 cautions with spinouts.

"Might have been four or five times," his father, Ken, jokingly said. "So he's come a long way. I'm telling you, it's not that much longer that he can qualify in the front and stay in the front. If you do that, it's only a matter of time before you win."

The elder Ragan, who competed in 50 Cup and five Nationwide events from 1983 until 1990, lives around the corner from the Kannapolis shop where his son piddles with race cars and collector cars such as the 1947 Jeep in which he learned to drive.

Ken Ragan has always been close by when it comes to his son's racing career. It was he who made Ragan decide at the age of 11 between racing as a hobby or a career. It was he who jumped Ragan from series to series until he reached NASCAR's premier level.

"I knew if you hadn't made a mark by 16 you were way too late to get in the circle," Ken said. "As soon as he would get a grip on any one division or any one car, we'd move him up.

"So he never won a lot of races like a Kyle Busch or others. We'd let him win, and move him up, let him win and move him up."

Ragan's big break came in 2005. He was driving part time in the ARCA series for Robert Yates Racing when he learned of a reality television series in which the winner would earn a ride in the Craftsman Truck Series for Roush.

He entered the competition with Yates' blessing, which in hindsight might have been a mistake based on RYR's struggle to find drivers.

He stood out immediately.

"We were like, 'How can anyone this young be this mature in the car?'" Roush president Geoff Smith recalled. "He was very confident in his abilities."

Roush agreed.

"He was the most opinionated 40-year-old I'd ever known," he said with a laugh. "The thing about that, he was only 18 years old at the time."

Unfortunately, that maturity didn't immediately transfer to the track. Ragan crashed twice in his first four starts and didn't finish on the lead lap, putting Roush in the position of contemplating a change.

"We thought we'd blown our one shot," said Ragan's mother, Beverly.

Roush stuck with his young driver and was rewarded with four straight top-10s. He was so impressed that in 2006 he began grooming Ragan to replace Martin, which became another fast-track situation when Martin announced plans to leave after that season for Ginn Racing.

The transition didn't go smoothly initially, either. Ragan made only two starts, finishing 42nd at Dover and 25th at Martinsville. He was so reckless at Martinsville that NASCAR restricted him from running 1.5-mile tracks until he gained more experience.

"A lot of his problems came from trying to hard," teammate Greg Biffle said. "He's doing a great job now. I raced side by side with him some at California and Las Vegas. He's learned a tremendous amount from last year to this year."

Ken, still Ragan's toughest critic, said it's all about car control.

"He's never been afraid to go fast from the first day Jack Roush saw him in a car," he said. "That's what got him the ride. If you drive them hard you're going to wreck them until you get where you polish up your driving skills and work on car control.

"If you remember Kyle Busch at the same point in his career, it wasn't ever a problem of getting that kid to go fast. He wrecked a lot of cars, too. Once he got his car control down he finds himself in the front. I think you're going to see David in the front soon."

Mental control
Lowe's Motor Speedway president H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler could tell if Ragan had a bad day last season when he went to his house for their weekly boxing session.

"You'd see that fire in his belly," he said.

Wheeler boxes with drivers such as Ragan to help them stay in shape and learn how to control their tempers on the track.

"I'll hit them somewhere you're not supposed to, try to make them mad," he said. "Then they'll go crazy and start flailing away [and] I'll say, 'You don't have any steam left now, I'm going to punch you out.' They get the message."

Wheeler said Ragan has come as far in ring as he has on the track, so much that they have curtailed their sessions so Ragan can focus on driving.

"I knocked him down one time and really ticked him off," he said. "He got up and came back flaring, and doing it in good fashion. By that time he'd learned to hit and move in a good fashion.

"The more mature they are the better they are able to handle frustration."

Ragan doesn't appear flappable on or off the track. He's so laid-back that it is hard to imagine him in the ring at all.

"He's a laid-back Georgia boy, but so was Bill Elliott," Wheeler said of the 1988 Cup champion. "I saw that when he was driving Legends cars. He's got that fire in him and that's what it takes to win, what it takes to go for the lead."

Ragan was so good in the ring that Wheeler tried to get him to join Golden Gloves after his senior year of high school. Instead, Ragan moved to Nashville to drive for Wayne Day.

But he still likes his occasional bout with Wheeler, who swears he's never had a driver knock him down.

"It's a great couple of hours to spend with him and listen to what he has to say," Ragan said. "When you leave his house all you can think about is this is tough, but it helps me for those 500 laps at Bristol and hot days at California."

Family affair
Adam Ragan looked up at his younger brother as they stood in front of the police car for a photograph. He's always looked up to David, from the times they played Little League together to when he was the water boy while David was the star quarterback.

But ask Adam to name his favorite driver and David's name doesn't come up.

"He likes whoever is winning," David said with a laugh. "It can be Jimmie Johnson or Carl Edwards or whoever is leading the lap or qualifying out front. You can't blame him for that. It just puts a little more heat on me to get up front."

Adam was born with Down syndrome. He can't drive a stock car like David, and he needs to sit in somebody's lap to drive the old Jeep. But he doesn't hesitate to say he can take his brother in a quarter-midget race, and points to his hardware as proof.

"I have a medal," he said, referring to the prize awarded for a rookie challenger series in Atlanta in 2000.

Adam also owns the quarter-midget track record in Hardeeville, S.C., where he is the only driver to take that type of car on the track.

"Both of us have about outgrown it," David said of the quarter midget. "I've gotten taller and he's grown wider."

Adam scowled. David smiled.

Both laughed it off.

Family is as important to David as racing. It's often hard to separate the two when you consider his history goes deeper into the sport than almost anybody else's in the series.

His grandfather owned a car that finished eighth on the beach at Daytona in 1948, the year before NASCAR was born. At least once he fielded a car driven by NASCAR founding father Bill France Sr., according to Ragan's uncle, Marvin.

Marvin is a former owner who fielded cars for most of his brother's Cup career. He also helped establish RYR.

Ken has gone from driver to general manger of 600 Racing at Speedway Motorsports Inc., which puts on the Legends Series that helped develop drivers such as Kurt and Kyle Busch.

None of them had the financial advantages of current stars such as Jeff Gordon. There were times when Ken barely had enough money to buy a ticket to a race, much less drive in one.

"David's had to work with his family to have the opportunity he's had and he appreciates it," Roush said. "He doesn't take it lightly. He's a young man that anybody my age would be happy to have as a son.

"He's just a unique young man."

And he's unique far beyond the track. While many drivers invest in airplanes and fancy cars, Ragan invests in goats and cows. The goats became such a joke that his pit board in the Nationwide Series last season was a picture of a goat saying, "David Stop Here."

While many drivers spend their free time playing expensive video games, David plays an old arcade pinball machine that he borrowed from racing legend Tiger Tom Pistone.

While many drivers ride around in expensive sports cars or luxury cars, he roams the Charlotte area in an old police car.

"I wouldn't trade that police car for a new Mercedes dead even," Ragan said. "I guess I just like old things. I'm just different, I guess."

David Newton covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at dnewtonespn@aol.com.