David Ragan shines as Roush Fenway Racing championship contenders struggle at Talladega

By SceneDaily Staff

Monday, October 06, 2008

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John Harrelson / Getty Images for NASCAR

Roush Fenway Racing's David Ragan (6) pushes Dale Earnhardt Jr. (88) at Talladega Superspeedway.

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TALLADEGA, Ala. - All three of Roush Fenway Racing's Sprint Cup title contenders faltered in Sunday's Amp Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, but teammate David Ragan flourished.

While Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth saw their hopes of a strong outcome end in a 12-car crash on lap 175, Ragan - who is outside the championship-determining field, avoided the wreck and went on to match his best career result with a third-place finish.

“We’re happy with a top-five, and fortunately we didn’t get caught up in that wreck in [turns] 3 and 4, but I’m a little disappointed," Ragan said. "We had a car that could have won today.”

Ragan, who has now finished third, fifth and fourth in his last three restrictor-plate races, believed he had a chance to win on the final lap.

“The 31 [of Richard Childress Racing's Jeff Burton] just fell off a little bit behind us, and it would have been tough to pull out and make any moves without any help from behind, so I’m a little disappointed that I couldn’t have done anything else there at the end," Ragan said. "I felt like we had a car that could have won. It’s all about being in the right place at the right time, and it was a solid day for our AAA team. We’ve got great superspeedway cars. The guys back at the shop really put a lot of effort into these two races."

Even though Ragan missed the big wreck, his day was not without incident. He recovered from an early spin on pit road.

"That first stop was a good stop, and there was just a little miscommunication between the 70 [of Haas CNC Racing's Tony Raines] and ourselves. He looked like he was coming in the stall, and then he checked up, and then I checked up. We were trying to be too cautious not to tear up anything.

"If I would have been full throttle and just kept going, we would have probably missed him, but, nevertheless, our team did a good job bouncing back."

Ragan couldn't complain too much about the outcome considering it further padded his lead over 14th-place Kasey Kahne in the standings – with 13th being the top spot available to drivers who didn’t make the field for NASCAR’s 2008 Chase For The Sprint Cup. Ragan now holds a 117-point cushion over the Gillett Evernham Motorsports driver heading into Saturday's Bank of America 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

“That’s our goal," Ragan said. "We’re certainly disappointed that we were not in that Chase for the championship, but 13th is something to be proud about, and that’s what we’re working towards.

"We just need some more runs like today, but it still would be sweet to get a win here pretty soon.”