David Ragan survives chaos to win at Talladega

David Ragan shot to the front on the final lap to win a rain-delayed Aaron’s 499 at Talladega that was laced with typical Alabama mayhem.

Ragan managed to dart clear and beat team-mate David Gilliland with Carl Edwards third in a green-white-checkered finish that stretched four laps beyond the scheduled 188-lap race distance. It was Ragan’s second Sprint Cup win.

“I’m kind of a low-key guy, but, man, I don’t know.  First off, I’ve got to thank the Lord.  Without him nothing is possible,” Ragan said.

Matt Kenseth led on the restart but ultimately finished eighth with Michael Waltrip, Jimmie Johnson, Regan Smith and Martin Truex jr who finished fourth-to-seventh all getting ahead of him.

Australian Marcos Ambrose was right in the race in the Richard Petty Motorsports Ford, running seventh with 10 laps remaining.

With six laps to go JJ Yeley was hit from the outside by Ricky Stenhouse jr who was trying to squeeze into a tight gap. It triggered the start of a spectacular shunt where Kurt Busch rolled and landed on top of Ryan Newman. Ambrose escaped being wiped out by the skin of his teeth.

“I’m just really proud of my team for keeping me going.  We were involved in two big wrecks and managed to finish 14^th with the car.  It’s not the day we wanted, but it’s a day we’re proud of,” Ambrose said.

The spectacular end came after a delay of more than three-and-a-half hours frustrated the fans and teams when officials pulled the red flag when the rain came.

After the incredibly long delay it was decided to restart the race under caution on lap 125.

Officials did not wave the green flag until lap 130 with Bobby Labonte taking the lead from David Gilliland.

Ambrose, Jeff Gordon and Juan Pablo Montoya were forced to start off the back of the pack after pitting too early.

A few laps later Ambrose helped Ricky Stenhouse jr work his way back up to the front courtesy of the high line.

By lap 152 Stenhouse jr was in third just in front of Ambrose who were chasing Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards.

Earlier Denny Hamlin decided to make the most of a caution period on lap 23 and vacate the cockpit, handing over the wheel to Brian Vickers.

Hamlin suffered a back injury in a crash at the superspeedway in California in March and was returning for the first time after missing four races. With Hamlin starting at Talladega he made himself eligible to earn whatever points Vickers would rake in.

The decision to bail out early was merely precautionary given the nasty nature of multi-car wrecks at the Alabama track.

Vickers however did not have much of a run before being involved in a multi-car wreck when contact between Kyle Busch and Kasey Kahne drew in more than a dozen cars and was classified in 34th.

RESULT: 

1	David Ragan	Front Row Ford	3h26m02.000s
2	David Gilliland	Front Row Ford	+ 0.213s
3	Carl Edwards	Roush Fenway Ford	+ 0.227s
4	Michael Waltrip	Waltrip Toyota	+ 0.293s
5	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Chevrolet	+ 0.307s
6	Regan Smith	Phoenix Chevrolet	+ 0.403s
7	Martin Truex Jr	Waltrip Toyota	+ 0.416s
8	Matt Kenseth	Roush Fenway Ford	+ 0.416s
9	Scott Speed	Leavine Ford	+ 0.489s
10	Aric Almirola	Petty Ford	+ 0.492s
11	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Chevrolet	+ 0.518s
12	David Stremme	Swan Toyota	+ 0.594s
13	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	Roush Fenway Ford	+ 0.616s
14	Marcos Ambrose	Petty Ford	+ 0.645s
15	Brad Keselowski	Penske Ford	+ 0.730s
16	Dave Blaney	Baldwin Chevrolet	+ 0.750s
17	Dale Earnhardt Jr	Hendrick Chevrolet	+ 0.755s
18	Clint Bowyer	Waltrip Toyota	+ 1.018s
19	Josh Wise	Front Row Ford	25.197s
20	Bobby Labonte	JTG Daugherty Toyota	30.895s
21	Michael McDowell	Parsosn Ford	+ 1 lap
22	Landon Cassill	Circle Sport Chevrolet	+ 1 lap
23	Jamie McMurray	Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet	+ 1 lap
24	Casey Mears	Germain Ford	+ 1 lap
25	Juan Pablo Montoya	Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet	+ 3 laps
26	Paul Menard	Childress Chevrolet	+ 4 laps
27	Tony Stewart	Stewart-Haas Chevrolet	+ 5 laps
28	Jeff Burton	Childress Chevrolet	+ 5 laps
	Terry Labonte	FAS Lane Ford	185 laps
	Kurt Busch	Furniture Row Chevrolet	182 laps
	JJ Yeley	Baldwin Chevrolet	182 laps
	Ryan Newman	Stewart-Haas Chevrolet	182 laps
	Danica Patrick	Stewart-Haas Chevrolet	182 laps
	Denny Hamlin/Brian Vickers	Joe Gibbs Toyota	148 laps*
	Joey Logano	Penske Ford	143 laps
	Greg Biffle	Roush Fenway Ford	141 laps*
	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Toyota	138 laps*
	Travis Kvapil	BK Toyota	128 laps*
	Joe Nemchek	NEMCO Toyota	53 laps
	Kevin Harvick	Childress Chevrolet	47 laps
	David Reutimann	BK Toyota	43 laps
	Kasey Kahne	Hendrick Chevrolet	42 laps
	Trevor Bayne	Wood Brothers Ford	22 laps

*Running at the finish

POINTS: After 10 of 36 rounds

Pos Driver Points 1 Jimmie Johnson 383 2 Carl Edwards 342 3 Dale Earnhardt jr 324 4 Clint Bowyer 316 5 Brad Keselowski 314 6 Kasey Kahne 299 7 Aric Almirola 293 8 Paul Menard 290 9 Kyle Busch 285 10 Greg Biffle 280 11 Matt Kenseth 279 12 Kevin Harvick 276 13 Martin Truex jr 269 14 Jeff Gordon 269 15 Jamie McMurray 267 16 Ricky Stenhouse jr 256 17 Ryan Newman 242 18 Joey Logano 237 19 Jeff Burton 235 20 Kurt Busch 231 21 Marcos Ambrose 225 22 Tony Stewart 224 23 Mark Martin 207 24 Casey Mears 203 25 Juan Pablo Montoya 201 26 David Ragan 192 27 Danica Patrick 180 28 Bobby Labonte 177 29 David Gilliland 173 30 Dave Blaney 173 31 Denny Hamlin 155 32 J.J. Yeley 148 33 David Stremme 146 34 David Reutimann 141 35 AJ Allmendinger 122 36 Landon Cassill 116 37 Travis Kvapil 106 38 Scott Speed 71 39 Michael McDowall 70 40 Michael Waltrip 63 41 Terry Labonte 52 42 Tommy Hill 34 43 Ken Schrader 29 44 Scott Riggs 6 45 Brian Keselowski 4

 

VIDEO: Late race wreck