Why David Ragan Missed the Chase

by Charlie Turner

Thanks for stopping by OnPitRow.com and the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog. The best NASCAR and IndyCar news and opinion, exclusive pictures and video. I'm Charlie Turner. Follow me on Twitter @onpitrow

The key to championship success in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is being good to great on the ubiquitous mile-and-a-half tracks.  NASCAR’s intermediates - which include the two milers at Michigan and California and all of the one-point-fivers make up most of the Sprint Cup schedule. The best of the best do well on these tracks.

Jimmy Johnson is NASCAR’s best-of-the-best poster boy. In the 114 races run on intermediate tracks during the last five years, Johnson has 22 wins, 53 top fives and 78 top tens.  And two Sprint Cup championships.  

The driver with the next highest win total on the intermediates is Greg Biffle.  And he has won the first two races of the 2008 Chase to the Cup.  But this isn’t about who likely will do well at Kansas Speedway this week.  This is about who won’t.

David Ragan has only raced once in the Cup series at Kansas.  He started 18th and improved to a 16th place finish.  Tells us nothing, really.  But in 43 starts on the intermediates, Ragan has only seven top tens and three top fives.  The top fives are great.  His consistency level on these tracks probably cost him his first try at the Chase.  

The guy who beat him out - Clint Bowyer - has raced in 67 races on the 1.5ers and has eight top fives - compared to Ragan’s three, not overwhelmingly superior.  But Clint has 25 top tens, which is.  Bowyer has made the Chase these last two years because of his performance on the type of track that constitutes the majority of the series.

Has David Ragan improved enough on the intermediates?  I wouldn’t count him out this week, mostly because he drives for Roush-Fenway and they look very stout right now.

Robby Gordon has been close to horrible on these tracks.  Sam Hornish Jr owns zero top tens and three DNFs.  David Reutimann has had poor results as have the Yates Racing duo of David Gilliland and Travis Kvapil.  Juan Pablo Montoya has four top tens and seven DNFs in 43 intermediate track Cup races.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

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