Ragan rallies from pit road penalty for fifth-place finish
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – David Ragan rallied from a late pit-road penalty to finish fifth in Saturday’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
That run moved him back into contention for The Chase For The NASCAR Sprint Cup.
Ragan, who ran in the top 10 for most the night, saw the likelihood of a strong finish dealt a severe blow on lap 125 of the 160 when NASCAR ordered him to the tail end of the longest line for non-compliant refueling during a pit stop.
Running third at the time, Ragan opted to go ahead and pit for tires as well and restarted 32nd. He then staged a fierce rally over the final laps to battle back into contention.
“It’s [a] shame we had to come back down pit road there with three or four cautions to go, and it put us back in the back, but it was fun coming back to the front and we had a good time,” Ragan said.
In the closing laps, Ragan avoided several wrecks that sent others spinning and crashing all around him and managed to get his No. 6 Ford to the finish despite bouncing off other cars more than once as drivers jockeyed three-and four-wide for position.
“I think I was in a lot of it most all day,” the 22-year-old driver said. “We’ve got to apologize to Kevin Harvick. On one of those restarts I really pushed him hard and pushed him there on the outside. I don’t think he liked it too much, but other than that, we had a fast car. … I think everybody saw we had a fast car. Whether they wanted to stick with us or not, I think they used it to their benefit to stick with us. There on the last lap, it’s crazy here at Daytona because everybody’s slipping and sliding on old tires.
“[Robby Gordon] had a good run on the bottom and we were kind of the meat in the sandwich in the middle, taking the white flag. I was able to stay in the throttle and not spin out, and just have a solid run. It’s always fun to run up front. We would’ve liked to have a shot to win it, but it was close. It was a good night.”
Another close call came earlier. With 20 laps to go, Ragan slid up into the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing car being driven by J.J. Yeley in relief of Tony Stewart. The contact caused Yeley's car to get loose, setting off a chain-reaction wreck that involved Hendrick Motorsports’ Casey Mears and Richard Childress Racing’s Jeff Burton.
Ragan continued without damage and hung on to score his third top-five finish of the season and first since a fifth-place finish at Darlington Raceway on May 10. He gained two spots to 15th in the series standings, leaving him three positions and 102 points outside the final Chase spot with eight races left before NASCAR’s playoff begins.
“This is what it’s going to take to make the Chase,” Ragan said. “To get out of Daytona with a good finish, we’ve just got to look at some of the next few races and stay focused on the big picture.”
