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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 | Kyle Busch | 1 |
| What's even more amazing about Busch's run is that he had a car capable of winning about five other races. | ||
| 2 | Carl Edwards | 2 |
| He could use a little bit of the luck Busch has been enjoying. His 99 looked like the car to beat until the strange case of a broken splitter forced him to the pits for repairs. | ||
| 3 | Matt Kenseth | 4 |
| Old-school Matt is back, quietly ripping off one top 10 after another. He has 12, tied with Edwards and one behind Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. | ||
| 4 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 3 |
| In the four races since his win at Michigan, he has only one top 10 finish. | ||
| 5 | Jimmie Johnson | 6 |
| Would you believe his second-place run at Chicagoland marked his only top five finish over the past 11 races? | ||
| 6 | Tony Stewart | 7 |
| At the very least, he no longer has to deal with questions about his status for next season. Now it's, "When are you going to win again?" | ||
| 7 | Jeff Burton | 5 |
| The No. 31 team is headed in the wrong direction with five consecutive finishes outside the top 10. | ||
| 8 | Brian Vickers | 9 |
| Over the past five races, only Kenseth and Kyle Busch have a better average finish (10.2). | ||
| 9 | Jeff Gordon | 8 |
| He has five finishes outside the top 10 in the past six races. He had only six all of last season. | ||
| 10 | Denny Hamlin | 10 |
| The 11 team is having a lot of problems and is on the verge of falling out of the top 12 in points. | ||
| 11 | Kasey Kahne | 11 |
| Points are so tight at the bottom of the top 12 that a 15th-place finish dropped him three spots to 11th in the standings. | ||
| 12 | Greg Biffle | 12 |
| Rebounds from last-place finish at Daytona with fourth at Chicagoland. | ||
| 13 | Kevin Harvick | 14 |
| He can usually count on Chicagoland for a pick-me-up. His third-place run Saturday night marked his fifth top five in eight trips to the track. | ||
| 14 | David Ragan | 15 |
| Half of his six top 10s have come in the past five races. | ||
| 15 | Clint Bowyer | 13 |
| When the 07 team is off, it's really off. Saturday marked his sixth finish of 22nd or worse in the past eight races. | ||
| 16 | Martin Truex Jr. | 16 |
| He probably had a car capable of a top five but struggled in traffic after a pit-road speeding penalty. | ||
| 17 | Ryan Newman | 18 |
| It's official: He won't be returning to Penske Racing next season. His lame-duck status could make for a long second-half for an already struggling No. 12 team. | ||
| 18 | Kurt Busch | 17 |
| He was slowly moving his way forward, but dropped a cylinder and had to spend the rest of the night just circling the track for points. | ||
| 19 | Mark Martin | 19 |
| Chicagoland has always been a so-so track for Martin and that proved to be the case again Saturday night. | ||
| 20 | Elliott Sadler | NR |
| His No. 19 team seems to be coming around. He has the same average finish over the past five races as his Gillett-Evernham Racing teammate Kahne (17th). | ||
