Ragan Wins NASCAR Event at Daytona

Saturday's NASCAR race at Daytona served as a bit of redemption. Months earlier, David Ragan was on the verge of winning the Daytona 500 and making his name in NASCAR. Yet the results turned against him when he left his lane during a late restart and was penalized. But there are two Daytona races on the schedule, so Ragan was reminded over and over about his mistake before Saturday's Coke Zero 400- and was able to take it to heart.

Once again, Ragan used the new tandem racing format to pull ahead late, with teammate Matt Kenseth's help. And right on schedule, late crashes gave Ragan the chance to fall into some familiar traps. But this time, he stayed right where he was supposed to on the restarts, and stayed ahead for his first NASCAR victory.

Tandem racing has been necessary at Daytona and Talladega this season, which had caused some thrilling, down-to-the-wire finishes on the last laps. But the results this time weren't as unpredictable, as crashes forced two overtime finishes. One final crash took place on the last lap, so no one could pass Ragan and Kenseth at the last minute.

Although few had heard of Ragan before the season started, he has made a big name for himself on the sport's most famous track. But in this case, he did so for the right reasons, and finally broke through after a few near misses. In fact, the victory left him in contention for one of the two Chase for the Cup wild card spots, which go to the winningest drivers between 11'th and 20'th place in the standings.

Ragan jumped to 17th, but he might need another win down the line to have a real shot at the Chase. He already has five top-10 finishes this season, so he may have a few more shots to get win No. 2 before the Chase deadline.

The Daytona races are the biggest events on the sport's schedule, yet the biggest names in auto racing have not come through at the end this year. Instead, Trevor Bayne and Ragan have won the two races, while Ragan could have easily won both. For some reason, the tandem format hasn't quite favored the veterans at Daytona, as pairs racing and the inability to make passes has leveled the playing field.

It didn't benefit points leader Carl Edwards, who finished 37th and lost the points lead for the first time in weeks. Kevin Harvick jumped ahead by five points, while Kyle Busch also jumped into third place ahead of his brother Kurt. In addition, Kenseth used his second place finish to leap into fifth overall.

After these chaotic results, the drivers will go to a new location to bounce back, as the NASCAR schedule includes Kentucky for the first time next Saturday night.

Sources

Yahoo Sports- "Ragan redeems himself at Daytona with 1'st win"

NASCAR.com- "Standings"