Ragan reflects after losing out on restart

Restarting as leader on an overtime restart Saturday night at Daytona, David Ragan summed up a sixth-place finish in the best way.

"Hey, I lost the Daytona 500 down here. Losing the Coke Zero 400, that ain't nothing," Ragan said with a small smile. "Yeah, I'll think about it tonight and tomorrow a little bit. Oh, I'll think about it for a couple years, but I can think about it and smile."

Ragan had cleared Ty Dillon on the initial restart, which he felt would put him in good shape. Except he didn't realize just how much of a run Ford teammate Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Michael McDowell had behind him. Stenhouse Jr. charged past Ragan with a lap and a half to go.

Overall, it was a gritty performance for a car that had the odds stacked against it. For instance, Ragan noted it wasn't as fast out front as it was pushing others. There was also damage on the right-front fender acquired during any one of the race's 14 caution periods.

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"My car wasn't as good on the bottom either; it liked to run that middle lane to the top," Ragan said. "I just didn't want to let anybody get on my outside. So, I made one bad move. I made a lot of bad moves tonight, but everybody was watching when I made the bad move at the end."

A Front Row Motorsports victory would have given the team an improbable berth in the playoffs. Additionally, it would have been Ragan's second career win in the July race at Daytona and his third overall.

But a second top 10 on the season isn't bad either. And Ragan will gladly take it considering how the last few restrictor-plate races have ended for him.

"If it was Thursday and you would have said, hey, we'll give you a sixth-place finish, I probably would have took that coming down to Daytona, because my record hasn't been that great the last several years here," Ragan said.

"I've been caught up in wrecks and haven't been able to finish one of these things clean. But to be that close, it's bittersweet. It hurts. But we got a lot of racing left, and I'm a tough guy; I can handle it."