Cup - Ragan Gets First Career Win at Daytona

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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)

Nationwide -- Allgaier Coasts to Victory at Chicagoland

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Justin Allgaier coasted to the win in Saturday night's STP 300 at Chicagoland Speedway, finishing 1.719 seconds ahead of Carl Edwards.  Both Allgaier and Edwards ran out of gas on the final lap, but Allgaier ran out a few seconds after Edwards and had enough momentum to coast to the stripe.

It was Allgaier's second career Nationwide Series win, and the second win of the season for a Nationwide-only driver.  It was Allgaier's first win at Chicagoland, the hometown track for the Riverton, Illinois, native.

With a long green run at the end, fuel became an issue for a lot of the field.  Carl Edwards dominated the race, leading 144 of the 200 laps, but it appeared to be a two-car race with Edwards battling Elliott Sadler for most of the final quarter of the race.  Edwards finally got around Sadler and led 24 of the final 25 laps.  Allgaier was running a distant third, but was slowly reeling in the leaders as the laps wound down.  Sadler had to pit with a tire going down with just six laps to go, ending his hopes for a victory.

As they began the final lap, Allgaier was close behind Edwards.  Edwards ran out of gas as they were going into Turn Three.  Allgaier swerved around him, then ran about 100 yards further before running of of gas himself.

Trevor Bayne, who made his return to the track after a six-race layoff due to a mysterious illness, finished third, the first car still under power.  After the race, he lamented that maybe his team had tried to conserve too much gas at the end.  If they had run a little harder sooner they might have been able to take advantage of the race leaders running out of gas in front of them.  Aric Almirola finished fourth, Jason Leffler fifth.  Allgaier, Bayne, Almirola and Leffler all scored their highest Nationwide finishes of the season.  (Race results)

The tire going down cost Sadler the lead in the series points standings.  Reed Sorenson, who finished sixth, moved ahead of Sadler, who finished 11th, by two points.  Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (-6) is now third, followed by Allgaier (-11) and Almirola (-46).

Nationwide -- Charlotte Results

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Matt Kenseth out-dueled Carl Edwards to win Saturday's Top Gear 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.  It was Kenseth's first Nationwide Series start this year, and his first in the new Nationwide car.

The race became a battle between Kenseth, Edwards and Kyle Busch, but the two Fords quickly pulled away after the final restart on Lap 154, leaving Busch to settle for third.  Kenseth, filling in for Trevor Bayne, passed Edwards on Lap 197 (of 200) and pulled away to win by 0.763 as Edwards ran out of gas coming to the finish line.  Roush Fenway Fords have now finished 1-2 in the last two Nationwide races -- a first for the team in the series.  Polesitter Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished fourth to give the team three of the top four finishes.  Reed Sorenson finished fifth.  (Race results)

Bayne, the 2011 Daytona 500 winner, now seems to be fully recovered from the mysterious illness that sidelined him since April 23.  The team set him down for one more week as a precaution, and he's expected to be back on the track for next weekend's race at Chicagoland Speedway.  Stenhouse will make his Sprint Cup debut tomorrow subbing for Bayne in the Coca-Cola 600 in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford.

Kimi Raikkonen made his Nationwide Series debut.  It was not a success.  An ill-handling car, a pit road speeding penalty and damage to the front splitter combined to give Raikkonen a 27th-place finish.

Elliott Sadler, who finished tenth, saw his series points lead shrink to just a single point over Stenhouse.  Sorenson is just two points back.  (Standings)