It took two overdrive finish attempts but at the end of the Coke Zero 400 it was David Ragan who visited victory lane for the first time at Daytona International Speedway.
Ragan Wins First Career Cup Series Race at Daytona
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Similar to February’s Daytona 500, Ragan’s Roush-Fenway Ford was the car to beat in the late stages of the race. It was just five months ago that Ragan seemed destined for a Daytona victory but lost his chance when he was penalized by NASCAR for changing lanes prior to the restart. For Trevor Bayne, the rest was history.
Saturday’s spotlight belonged to David Ragan.
Not one, but two accidents punctuated the final restart and involved upwards of 15 cars and when the dust finally settled it was Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Kasey Kahne and Kyle Busch standing as the rest of the Top 5.
With the victory, Regan moves to 17th in the championship standings and is now one of just two drivers with a win between 11th and 20th. This makes him one of the two wildcard drivers for the Chase for the Championship.
Kevin Harvick took the points lead from Carl Edwards. Harvick finished seventh, while Edwards finished 37th. Harvick leads Edwards by 5 points as the Cup Series heads to Kentucky Speedway. Kyle Busch is third, 10 points back.
The complete finishing order can be found after the jump.
FIN CAR DRIVER MAKE1 6 David Ragan Ford2 17 Matt Kenseth Ford3 20 Joey Logano Toyota4 4 Kasey Kahne Toyota5 18 Kyle Busch Toyota6 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet7 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet8 27 Paul Menard Chevrolet9 42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet10 43 A.J. Allmendinger Ford11 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet12 83 Brian Vickers Toyota13 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota14 22 Kurt Busch Dodge15 2 Brad Keselowski Dodge16 34 David Gilliland Ford17 9 Marcos Ambrose Ford18 16 Greg Biffle Ford19 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet20 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet21 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet22 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet23 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet24 78 Regan Smith Chevrolet25 0 David Reutimann Toyota26 51 Landon Cassill Chevrolet27 71 Andy Lally * Ford28 32 Terry Labonte Ford29 38 Travis Kvapil Ford30 87 Joe Nemechek Toyota31 47 Bobby Labonte Toyota32 13 Casey Mears Toyota33 5 Mark Martin Chevrolet34 7 Robby Gordon Dodge35 56 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota36 33 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet37 99 Carl Edwards Ford38 135 Geoff Bodine Chevrolet39 36 Dave Blaney Chevrolet40 60 Mike Skinner Toyota41 21 Trevor Bayne Ford42 66 Michael McDowell Toyota43 97 Kevin Conway Toyota
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