Updated May 12
David Ragan has arrived.
Oh, he's probably not championship material quite yet, but his career has taken a steep climb upward in his second season in the Cup Series.
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| David Ragan rebounded from his Daytona disaster, climbing to the top 12 in points. (Getty Images) |
For the naysayers, the Daytona 500 looked to be the beginning of the end for Ragan's tenure with Roush. He finished 42nd, wrecking teammate Matt Kenseth in the process.
But Ragan persevered and he followed the Daytona debacle with a 14th-place run at California and seventh at Las Vegas. And there have been more solid runs, such as 11th at Martinsville, 13th at Texas and fourth at Talladega.
Saturday night at Darlington Raceway, often described as the most challenging track on the schedule, Ragan finished fifth for his second top five and third top 10 in 11 races, already matching his season totals from a year ago. It also moved him into the top 12 in the point standings.
"That's an awesome run," Ragan said. "Whether we were at Daytona, Talladega or Richmond or Bristol, that would be great, but to do it at Darlington is just something special. Darlington is an awesome track. You're running laps out there and you think about the guys that made this place famous like Cale Yarborough and Bill Elliott and David Pearson and people like that. It just makes you realize how fortunate we are to come out here and race at such a cool track.
"Our pit crew did an awesome job. We picked up spots every time, and it was an overall great run. We're getting this deal somewhat figured out. We've had some good race cars, we just have to fine tune a little bit to try and win one of these things."
Power Rankings after Darlington:
| POWER RANKINGS | ||
| Current | Driver | Previous |
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | 1 |
| Next to Martinsville, there probably isn't a better track for Johnson and his 48 team to try to rebound than Phoenix, where he has three wins, seven top fives, 10 top 10s and an average finish of fifth in 12 starts. | ||
| 2 | Mark Martin | 2 |
| Martin was OK in the first half of Sunday's race but really came on in the second half to snag a top five. That allowed him to close the gap on Johnson from 184 to 73 points. And there's even more good news for the 5 team as the series shifts Phoenix: Martin won at the track in April. | ||
| 3 | Jeff Gordon | 3 |
| Troubles at Talladega and Texas left him outside the top 10 in back-to-back races for the first time since May. | ||
| 4 | Tony Stewart | 5 |
| A good, solid effort from the 14 team throughout at Texas, just didn't have enough to challenge the Busch brothers for supremacy. | ||
| 5 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 4 |
| He started 20th and had made gains into the top 10 until he got loose running next to Carl Edwards, taking them both out. | ||
| 6 | Denny Hamlin | 6 |
| He was stout early, racing from 25th into the top five, but poor pit stops and contact with the wall had the 11 car reeling in the second half of the race. So his team gambled and won on fuel mileage to pull out second. | ||
| 7 | Kurt Busch | 7 |
| Not only did he have a great car, but great fuel mileage as well. He was always one of the last to pit after every long green-flag run at Texas. | ||
| 8 | Kyle Busch | 10 |
| On the verge of an historical triple victory weekend at Texas, he runs out of fuel just a couple laps from the finish. Tough way to end Dave Rogers' first race as crew chief of the 18 car. | ||
| 9 | Ryan Newman | 9 |
| Struggled with a loose car at Texas, running just 61 laps in the top 15. | ||
| 10 | Matt Kenseth | 12 |
| His 17 team continues to show late-season improvement. He had the best finish (third) of those who pitted for gas instead of gambling. | ||
| 11 | Clint Bowyer | 14 |
| A steady run for Bowyer, who finishes in the top 10 at Texas for the third time in his past four visits. | ||
| 12 | Greg Biffle | 13 |
| Notched his second consecutive top 10 and third of the Chase. | ||
| 13 | Kasey Kahne | 8 |
| After starting second, he dropped like a rock. Ran in the teens most of the day until his engine went sour in the waning laps, leading to a 33rd-place finish. | ||
| 14 | Carl Edwards | 11 |
| Four consecutive finishes outside the top 10 including two finishes of 39th. There wasn't a whole lot he could do to avoid Montoya getting up into him Sunday at Texas. | ||
| 15 | Kevin Harvick | 15 |
| Earns his fourth top five of the season at Texas, his first since a second-place run at Atlanta in early September. | ||
