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closeKahne, Ragan miss Chase cut on a tough race day for both
JIM UTTER
The Charlotte Observer
Sunday, Sep. 07, 2008
RICHMOND, Va. - David Ragan's beat-up No. 6 Ford came to a rest on pit road at Richmond International Raceway, duct-tape trailing and bent sheet metal visible everywhere.
His car symbolized the difficult battle Ragan waged in Sunday's rain-delayed Chevy 400 to claim one of the 12 spots in this year's Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Ragan and Kasey Kahne were the only two drivers who could have raced their way into the Chase by their performance Sunday, but both experienced problems in the race, with Ragan finishing 32nd and Kahne 19th.
"It's very disappointing," said Ragan. "I felt like the first 100 laps or so we had a top-five car and seemed to be pretty quick.
"Certainly this one race doesn't dictate how our season has gone. We've got 10 more races to try to get a win and certainly to finish 13th in points is our goal now. But running back there 30th to 25th, you don't deserve to make the Chase running like that."
On Lap 122, Ragan came through Turn 2, got loose and spun and struck the wall. His Roush Fenway Racing teammate, Matt Kenseth, who was running right behind Ragan, spun in almost exactly the same fashion.
At first, Ragan said he thought he and Kenseth had made contact but was told otherwise. He still wasn't sure what transpired.
"I haven't seen a replay, but I told the guys (on the team) that maybe we had a tire going down or it seemed ... pretty abruptly that our car hadn't had that characteristic all weekend," Ragan said.
"That's something we'll have to diagnose when we get back to the shop."
Kahne's absence from the Chase may be biggest surprise of the two considering he started the late-spring-summer stretch with wins in the all-star race and Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway, another win at Pocono and second-place finish at Michigan.
In the three of the last four races, Kahne has finished 20th or worse.
"I drove as hard as I could all day. I tried to take chances and be smart at the same time and get what we could get," Kahne said. "We weren't going to beat Clint (Bowyer) no matter what we did. It was a good try and that was it."