Power Rankings: Ragan starting to drive like real deal
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 | Greg Biffle | 1 |
| Won the pole and led 74 laps on Saturday night but faded down the stretch to finish 12th. Still hanging on to the Sprint Cup Series points lead but by only a pair over Roush Fenway Racing teammate Matt Kenseth. | ||
| 2 | Matt Kenseth | 2 |
| Climbed to within a whisker of the points lead with a sixth-place finish on Saturday night. Now the world awaits the announcement regarding the potential change of Kenseth's car number. Relax Kenseth fans, the 17 isn't going anywhere. | ||
| 3 | Jimmie Johnson | 7 |
| Roared back up the rankings and the points standings with his first win since October of last season and in the process gave team owner Rick Hendrick historic Sprint Cup victory number 200. Johnson's history has been to bunch up wins once he gets to victory lane. | ||
| 4 | Kyle Busch | 3 |
| Was in the mix for a second Darlington win but wound up settling for a fourth-place finish. Like Johnson Busch has returned to form in recent weeks and delivered on the expectations most had for the No. 18 team this season. | ||
| 5 | Denny Hamlin | 5 |
| Was behind the wheel of one of the coolest looking cars in recent weeks with a Cale Yarborough-inspired retro paint scheme on the No. 11 Toyota. Looked almost Yarborough-like at Darlington for a while but didn't have enough mustard to run down Johnson for the win. | ||
| 6 | Martin Truex Jr. | 6 |
| Wasn't exactly pleased with his team for some suspect pit work at one point of the race but kept his composure and battled back for yet another finish inside the top five. | ||
| 7 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 4 |
| It was a struggle for Junior to just finish 17th. Had a decent car early in the night but handling issues plagued the No. 88 squad, and you can be sure crew chief Steve Letarte won't bring the same set-up back to Darlington next season. | ||
| 8 | Clint Bowyer | 8 |
| A rather quiet night for the Michael Waltrip Racing driver with an 11th-place finish. Still not bad when an "off night" can be within a hair of a top-10 run. | ||
| 9 | Tony Stewart | 12 |
| An interesting night for Smoke, who was very strong in spurts but had to fight through handling issues, a broken clutch and a fuel pressure problem during the 500 miles. Pretty solid performance to deal with all that and still come home third. | ||
| 10 | Carl Edwards | 11 |
| A seventh-place finish and another top 10, but now that Johnson's 17-race winless drought has ended will the questions mount for Edwards on his not visiting Victory Lane for more than a year? | ||
| 11 | Kevin Harvick | 10 |
| Was the focal point of Darlington's promotional campaign trying to capitalize on Harvick's tussle with Kyle Busch last season. But overall a very quiet night for the No. 29 Chevrolet driver who left Darlington with a rather mediocre 16th-place finish. | ||
| 12 | Brad Keselowski | 9 |
| Hasn't performed well at Darlington during his Sprint Cup career and that remained intact on Saturday with a 15th-place Southern 500 effort. A downer for the Blue Deuce after Keselowski's Talladega win last weekend. | ||
| 13 | Ryan Newman | 13 |
| Was headed for a better night than what the results show when Newman got caught up in the aftermath of Kurt Busch's spin late in the race when he got punted from behind. The frustration overflowed once the checkered flag flew with both teams getting involved in a scuffle as well as Newman and Busch exchanging harsh words. | ||
| 14 | Paul Menard | 15 |
| A decent day with a 13th-place finish for the Richard Childress Racing driver. Continues to hang around on the fringe of the top 10 in the points standings. | ||
| 15 | Kasey Kahne | NR |
| Has finally completed the turnaround from his dismal start to the season and is knocking down consistent finishes on a weekly basis. Kahne's eighth-place run was his fifth straight top-10 finish. | ||
