Unadilla’s David Ragan Earns First Career Cup Series Win In Wild Daytona Shootout

DAYTONA BEACH, FL – Unadilla’s David Ragan made huge mistake on a late restart in February’s Daytona 500 that cost him a shot at his first career win in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Saturday night in Daytona for the Coke Zero 400, no one had to remind him of the rules when he again found himself leading on a late race restart.

“I was on Matt Kenseth’s radio on that last restart and his spotter mentioned it,” Ragan said. “And I said, ‘You don’t have to tell me, so don’t even say it.’ That kind of lightened the mood. Everyone’s so tense there at the end.”

Ragan had a dominant car all evening and took the lead late and held on for two green-white-checker finishes to score his first career Cup points’ victory. Teammate Matt Kenseth, who pushed Ragan to the victory finished second. The two paired for the entire race, combining to lead 29 laps.

“This is fun. There’s not a better place to do it than Daytona,” said Ragan in victory lane. “We delivered a win for UPS. I’ve been promising all those ‘UPSers’ for a couple of years and final got it in Daytona. It couldn’t be any better.

“I have to thank Matt Kenseth,” added Ragan. “We really worked well together tonight and he pushed me to the finish line. This is just awesome.”

A usual in restrictor plate races, the late Green-White-Checkers finish help create a wild melee of crashing cars as the cars approached the finish line. Joey Logano wound up third while Kasey Kahne and Kyle Busch rounded out the top five.