Ragan gives teen thrill ride at Daytona.
DAYTONA BEACH — Drivers are usually defined by their ability to chase speed.
The Coke Zero 400 post-script will show that
made a tactical mistake as he led the field to green on the final restart late Saturday night. Given a choice to go high or low, Ragan stayed high to block The move allowed
to get a push on the low side and eventually win the race.
By the time Ragan tried to jockey back for position, it was too late. He wound up sixth, a solid finish, but also missed an opportunity to steal a playoff spot as a competitor not afforded the luxuries of driving for one of the super teams.
"My car was better in the middle to the top groove all night long,” Ragan said Tuesday morning, reflecting again on the moment. “I felt like if I had to choose that one lane to try to block, it would be the top lane. But the 17 [Stenhouse] had such a fast run that when I found out he was coming that hard I couldn’t get back down to block him.
“I was put in a bad spot and I made a decision there.”
But there’s a bigger picture here that’s important. And if you look at things from that perspective, Ragan had a great weekend.
He hosted a 15-year-old kid from Central Florida who is a Shriners Hospitals for Children patient. Shriners has sponsored Ragan for three races, and its brand was all over his No. 38 Ford Saturday night. But then there’s the personal touch.
Riley spent considerable time with Ragan on race weekend, doing things like taking a ceremonial introductory lap with Ragan around the track and getting to hang out on pit road before the start of the race.
It was a wonderful respite from the circumstances of his life. Riley was born with a genetic condition called hereditary multiple exostoses (HME), which causes irregular bone growth. Physicians discovered growths from nearly head to toe through a full body X-ray when he was just 14 months old. He has endured COMMENTARY more than a dozen surgeries to deal with his condition.
Other images shaped his circumstances this weekend.
“I think Riley was a true race fan,” Ragan said. “He enjoyed the race and the dynamic of the pit crew in preparing the race car and strategy. He asked some really good questions. You could tell he was engaged, It was great to have such an in-tune mature young man at the race track.”
Heading into Saturday’s Cup race in Kentucky, Ragan is 28th in points, competing for Front Row Motorsports alongside
Given the dynamics, there is always going to be a David-vs.-Goliath feel to the competitive grind.
“We’re aware of those odds but I wouldn’t say it’s frustrating,” Ragan said. “We embrace our goal and we know what our realistic expectations are. It would be frustrating if you were on a larger team and under-performed.
“I embrace what Front Row Motorsports is. All of the successful premier teams of today, they all had to start somewhere at some point 15-20-25 years ago. … That’s a part of our sport. Everybody can’t be on top of the mountain.” Spoiler Alert! OK, not really.
is on shaky ground with Stewart-Haas Racing. Just do the math. Her contract is not locked in for next season. Meanwhile, Patrick is 29th in points and has yet to post a Top 5 finish in 171 Cup starts.
also isn’t locked in, but assuming there are no sponsorship hiccups, his performance will be an asset, not a deterrent, in keeping him around. Busch, the Daytona 500 champ, is 14th in points.
“Contracts are signed — and expire — at all different times,” team founder
told motorsport.com. “It’s hard to say when one person’s contract is going to expire because there are options and things like that. I think that’s why they call it silly season. We kind of start looking at what we want to do. The drivers do the same thing. Sponsors do the same thing.
“In order for all the pieces to fall into place, you have to take all three parties — you’ve got to take the drivers, the owners and the sponsors and see if you can’t align all the stars up and get them to agree on something.”
Stayed tuned as the regular season and playoffs segue into NASCAR’s “silly season.”