Cup - Ragan Gets First Career Win at Daytona

Image by jerbec via Flickr

David Ragan cruised to his first career Cup Series win in Saturday night's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

Racing in the two-car drafts that have become commonplace at the superspeedways, the top four finished in single file. Ragan was pushed to victory by his Roush Fenway teammate Matt Kenseth.  The tandem of Joey Logano and Kasey Kahne didn't try to challenge the finish and finished third and fourth respectively.

A sedate race by Daytona standards turned treacherous at the end.  It took two green-white-checkered finishes and ten extra laps to settle this one.  With two separate wrecks occurring simultaneously on the final lap, NASCAR let it play out to the finish and didn't throw the caution until the leaders had crossed the line.

After three cautions in the first 50 laps, the race settled down into a long green flag run from Lap 53 to Lap 157.  Then with just three laps left to go, Kahne got together with his Red Bull teammate Brian Vickers, pushing Jeff Gordon up into Kyle Busch and Logano.  It was slight contact, but was enough to send Gordon sideways in traffic.  Gordon made a tremendous save to get the car straightened out again, but that brought out the caution and set up the first GWC attempt.

The first attempt didn't make it through Turn Two.  Racing three wide through the turn, Mark Martin drifted down on Logano, triggering the Big One.  Somewhere in the neighborhood of fifteen cars were involved in various degrees.

They lined up again for a second GWC.  Ragan got a great push from Kenseth to stay out front, but Ryan Newman and Denny Hamlin challenged.  Logano and Kahne went outside to make it three wide, and Newman and Hamlin were stranded in the middle and fell back.  On the final lap, Landon Cassill got together with Marcos Ambrose, triggering a multi-car crash.  As that one was playing out, Jamie McMurray got together with Dale Earnhardt Jr., triggering another melee closer to the front of the field.

Kyle Busch finished fifth, followed by Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Paul Menard, Juan Montoya, and A. J. Allmendinger.  (Race results)

Ragan atoned for a big mistake at the Daytona 500 in February.  Leading the field to green on a late restart, Ragan was penalized for changing lanes before he crossed the start/finish line, ending his chances for a win.

Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne's hopes for a repeat at the track ended early on Lap 5.  A push from Brad Keselowski hooked him into the wall and ended his day.

Carl Edwards's day also ended early.  On Lap 23, he was hooked by his Roush Fenway teammate Greg Biffle.  Biffle slapped the outside wall; Edwards slid through the infield and smacked the inside wall hard.  Edwards came into the race with a 25-point lead in the series points standings, but finished 37th and relinquished the lead to Harvick.

Harvick now leads Edwards by five points.  Kyle Busch jumped two spots to third, ten points behind Harvick.  Kurt Busch (-16) is fourth.  Kenseth (-22) is fifth.  Jimmie Johnson (-22) got caught up in the last-lap melees and finished 20th, dropping him three spots to sixth in the standings.  Earnhardt (-52) is seventh, followed by Gordon (-67), Clint Bowyer (-81) and Newman (-88).  With just nine races left before the Chase, Hamlin has closed to within three points of tenth.  Tony Stewart is just four points behind Newman now.  (Points standings)

Related articles

• Ragan may have saved his job (msn.foxsports.com)
• WINNERS & LOSERS: David Ragan and Matt Kenseth make Roush Fenway Racing the big winner at Daytona (scenedaily.com)

From the Twitter Machine

One of the big stories before Friday night's Subway Jalapeno 250 at Daytona International Speedway was Kevin Harvick Inc.'s four-car mega-team that was entered in the race.  KHI had cars for Harvick, Tony Stewart, Clint Bowyer and Elliott Sadler.

Harvick won the pole, followed by Stewart, Sadler and Bowyer to give KHI a sweep of the first two rows.  It was the first time in series history that a team had started a race 1-2-3-4.  Things didn't go so well after that.  Harvick turned Bowyer into the wall on Lap 80.  All the other cars were wrecked on the final lap.

This was Harvick's wife DeLana's reaction on Twitter after the race...

Well that was expensive.....Sat Jul 02 01:43:14 via SeesmicDeLana Harvick
DeLanaHarvick

Nationwide - Busch Pushes Logano to Daytona Win

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Joey Logano got a big push from his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch to win Friday night's Subway Jalapeno 250 at Daytona International Speedway.  Logano held off a late charge by Jason Leffler to win by 0.040 seconds.

Logano started at the rear of the field after his crew made unapproved modifications to his car before the race.  He was turned early in the race by teammate Brian Scott as they tried to go below the yellow line to pass the slower car of Kevin LaPage, but somehow saved it.  Logano didn't lead in the race until the final half-mile.

It was Logano's ninth career Nationwide Series win, his first of the season and his first at Daytona.

As Logano crossed the stripe, the Big One unfolded behind him.  Mike Wallace ran Danica Patrick up into the wall.  She bounced back down into the pack, triggering an eight-car crash.

Reed Sorenson finished third and collected the first of four $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonuses Nationwide is giving away this season.  Busch was fourth, followed by Justin Allgaier and Michael Annett.  Kenny Wallace took seventh place going through the infield grass.  The wrecked cars of Elliott Sadler, Aric Almirola and Patrick made it across the line to round out the Top Ten.  (Race results)

On Lap 44, Eric McClure was turned hard into the wall by Mike Bliss.  McClure walked away from the wreck, but was taken to the infield care center, then to a local hospital for further evaluation.

The top eleven spots in the series points standings stayed the same, but Sorenson extended his lead to nine points over Sadler.  Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (-31) is third, followed by Allgaier (-37) and Leffler (-73).

NASCAR Basics: Impound Races

Image by fdtate via FlickrOn a typical NASCAR race weekend, Sprint Cup drivers will get some practice time in and qualify Friday, followed by more practice Saturday and the race on Sunday.  Crewmembers can set up the cars for qualifying, then dial in a race setup.  For an impound race, NASCAR usually shifts to Saturday qualifying, then impounds the cars from after qualifying until the start of the race.

At one time impound races comprised over half of the races on the Cup schedule.  It was supposed to be a cost cutting move, a balance between the teams that could afford to set up the car twice, once for qualifying and once for racing, and those who had to make due with just one setup.

The number of impound races has been pared down to just a few -- currently, the two Talladega races and the July Daytona race.  Television networks, sponsors, track officials and fans wanted to see more on-track activity on a race weekend.  Secondarily, the rules seemed to be hurting the poorest teams the most, the ones the rule was designed to help.

The richer teams were able to be more liberal with their setups.  Since they were in the Top 35 in owner's points and therefore locked into the race, they didn't have to strain to get all the speed they could in qualifying.  The poorer teams, who were more likely to be go-or-go-homers having to get into the race on speed, were forced into qualifying setups that they had to change into race trim on pit road during the race.

When a car is impounded, two crewmembers are allowed in to turn off the electrical switches, take out the radio, check air pressures and cover the cars.  They must then leave the garage.  On race day, two crewmembers are allowed in to get the car ready for the race.  They can connect the oil heater, open the hood, prime the oil system, start the car, move the car out of the garage, open the oil cooler pressure valve if needed, start the engine, close the hood, check and adjust air pressures, tighten the wheels, put the radio back in the car, put in a water bottle, adjust the tape on the front of the car, replace equipment batteries, and add a limited amount of fuel.  All other work is forbidden except with NASCAR authorization which is rarely granted.