NASCAR At Daytona International Speedway: David Ragan Talks Redemption While Others Discuss “Strange Racing”

Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 once again featured the two-car tandem drafting partners throughout the night, making for some interesting racing throughout the event. At the end of the night, David Ragan was able to charge to the front with a push from teammate Matt Kenseth while the field wrecked behind them.

Here is what a few of the competitors had to say following the race:

David Ragan (on if Saturday’s win made up for his mistake in the Daytona 500): “Yeah, because all you guys want to talk about it on a regular basis. I was hoping to win one a little earlier than the July 4th race here, but it’s a good feeling to come back here and kind of we got one back at Daytona. It would have been tough to lose another one.

“I thought about that actually under that last caution. I said, ‘Man, if we don’t win this thing, I said I’m not going to talk to anyone afterwards.’ So we were able to win. That does ease the pain from February. It’s still nice to think about that Daytona 500 ring, but it’s awesome.”

Joey Logano (on race winner David Ragan): “David and I grew up together. Since I was 9 years old we’ve raced against each other. I went over to Victory Lane and congratulated him. He deserves it, for sure. I know how he felt after the 500 this year. I can only imagine how tough that’s got to be, you know.

“But he definitely redeemed himself today, so that’s really cool for him. I know how cool it was last night winning here at Daytona (in the Nationwide Series), I couldn’t imagine what it is one level up against the best of the best. That’s got to be really awesome. So congratulations to him and the team. They really, really deserved it.”

Kyle Busch (on how he finished fifth): “I have no idea. I just kept my foot in it there at the end. When we got in the wall there, we come down pit road and we put four tires on it and fixed the fender damage and everything and got back out there. The big wreck happened and we missed it. We didn’t have any flats so we just decided to stay out. A couple guys pitted. We gained a little bit of track position back and then we got mixed up from (Brad) Keselowski, who were going to work with, and then (Jeff) Gordon was behind me so he just pushed me. We kept our foot in it and drove right up through the bottom, man. There were some holes that parted ways and just kept digging and luckily he made it through and I made it through and we ended up with a fifth out of the deal.”

Kevin Harvick (finished seventh): “We had a plan to stick with the No. 27 (Paul Menard) all night and I think we ran every lap with him. The first green-white-checkered we had a great run and the timing was perfect. The second one, we just didn’t have quite the timing and got a couple of guys underneath us and then we just got a little bit too far behind. But still, everything worked pretty good.”

Steve Addington (crew chief for Kurt Busch on their night): “This is some strange racing. After we got collected late in that big wreck, I was going to stay out despite having half a door. But then NASCAR called us in under caution and made us fix the driver side door. We dropped back to restart 26th or so on the restart and it’s amazing that we ended up 14th. Kurt drove a great race. We got hooked-up with the 78 (Regan Smith) and just rode around all night. So much of this kind of racing is out of your control. You just try and put yourself in position to have a shot at winning at the end. We just got caught up in the wrecks.”

Mark Martin (on the closing laps): “I have no idea, didn’t really see it. The accident that I was in, you know, I lost my partner there with Jeff (Gordon) and knew it was going to get crazy. Then on the restart I thought (Joey) Logano and I were going to hook up. He didn’t have a partner and I didn’t either. I must have been four inches not ahead of him and I was trying to get in front of him so we could go. It was still okay. I felt him touch me and I was trying to save it but then - I don’t know how, I haven’t seen it. You know cars were hitting everybody. From there I probably could have saved it, I thought I could save it but cars were just going everywhere.”