Saturday night racing on any track is always exciting add in restrictor plates and tandem racing exciting does not quite describe it.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup series went from the road courses last week to Daytona International Raceway this weekend.
First time for everything…
Back in February David Ragan was penalized for changing lanes before crossing the start-finish line. On Saturday night Ragan was teamed up with Matt Kenseth. The duo worked well together and found themselves in the lead as the race wore down.
When caution waved with four to go for Jeff Gordon’s spin Ragan and Kenseth were looking to just be in position. On the second attempt at a green, white checkered Ragan found himself in the lead. Kenseth stayed on him and pushed him to his first career victory. The race would end under caution as a massive wreck happened after the leaders took the white flag.
With that Ragan moved to 17th in the standings and he would be eligible to make the Chase if he can maintain his position in the top 20.
Sweep no more…
Trevor Bayne was looking to sweep the season races at DIS on Saturday night. He qualified second and for the first few laps worked with Clint Bowyer. Bowyer though found Jeff Burton and Bayne quickly dropped to through the field.
He finally hooked up with Brad Keselowski but as they were going into turn one Keselowski was too far to the left of Bayne and turned Bayne. He hit the wall hard and saw his bid for a season sweep end early. He would finish 41st.
Rough night…
For Carl Edwards their goal was tofinish the race. They had some cushion in the points and like many other teams they were going to work with their teammates. Edwards and Biffle were running in the top five when Edwards was going to go high and Biffle didn’t get the message.
Edwards spun down and hit the inside wall. He suffered some damage to his race car so much so that he actually knocked out the crush panels. In doing so he was breathing in carbon monoxide and was struggling in the race car. Their night continued to go south when they cut a tire. He would finish 37th and drop to second in the standings.
Lug Nuts…
-Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman worked together the entire night. They were in the lead on lap 162 but got shuffled back in the pack. Newman was caught up in wreck on the final lap and finished 23rd while Hamlin finished 13th.
-Gordon and Kyle Busch found themselves pairing up on the final restart of the race. After restarting 29th and 30th on the restart on lap 162 they ended up finishing fifth for Busch and sixth for Gordon.
-There were 57 lead changes among 25 leaders. Those 25 leaders is a DIS track record for any event held here.
-Ragan is 12th different driver to win a race this season.
For the rest of the results click here and for the standings following DIS click here.
Next week the series heads to Kentucky Speedway for the first time. That race is next Saturday at 7:30ET on TNT.
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