Ragan takes first Nationwide win

Ragan was running fifth as the last lap started on the green-white-chequered finish and as others rubbed fenders ahead of him, the Roush Fenway driver made the most of a push from Joey Logano to be able to make his way to the front and just beat pole-sitter Ryan Newman, leading only the last lap of the race.

"That was an exciting race," said Ragan after winning his first NASCAR-sanctioned event following 196 starts. "We've been waiting for this for a long time. I didn't know if it would come this weekend or not but a lot of fun, a lot of emotions.

"I was kind of contending with the top-five and no one seemed to be able to run on the outside and really push hard. I've got to give credit to Joey Logano. He helped me out, an old legends-car buddy. I just kind of saw some beating and banging in first and second and said 'what the heck, let's jump to the outside and see what we can make out of it'."

Twelve laps before going through the chequered flag first, Ragan had tapped the rear of his team-mate Matt Kenseth, causing him to flip several times on the backstraight. Ragan apologised for the incident, while expecting they will both move on from it ahead of Sunday's Sprint Cup series race.

Before that he was penalised for speeding on pitroad but he eventually got back in contention thanks to a later caution period.

Newman, who was driving for Kevin Harvick's team, was disappointed to have lost the race on the last lap. He made contact with Dale Earnhardt Jr who had pushed him since the last restart, waiting for the right moment to make his move for the lead.

However their battle left the door open for Ragan to go by both and take the win, despite Newman trying to block and even bang against the 23-year-old's car, while he was making the move that won him the race.

"I knew (Dale) Jr was coming, I blocked him and he got me sideways," said Newman. "Just really didn't expect the #6 (Ragan) to have that run. I guess he wouldn't have if he didn't have a little help from somebody behind him. In the end that was a good finish for us, but not what we wanted."

Logano finished third on his first Nationwide outing at Talladega, moving through the field behind Ragan on the last few yards of the race. Tony Raines finished fourth, while Earnhardt Jr was fifth, both seeing how Ragan drove past between them as they approached the finish line.

"I didn't think I had a shot at winning so I just started pushing who was in front of me and David happened to be there," said Logano. "I just started pushing him and his run finally opened up by the time we were halfway past the tri-oval. I just started following him through the holes he made and it was cool to push him up to the lead."

Logano's race was not without incident though, as he spun Michael Waltrip out of the race, getting Clint Bowyer involved in the incident as well. His team-mate Kyle Busch, who finished tenth, was also involved in a couple of incidents, first in Kenseth's flip and then in a second wreck when he hit the back of Justin Allgaier's car.

Despite that, his top-ten finish allows him to maintain his lead in the championship ahead of Carl Edwards and race-winner Ragan.

Pos  Driver                Car        Laps
 1.  David Ragan           Ford       120
 2.  Ryan Newman           Chevrolet  120
 3.  Joey Logano           Toyota     120
 4.  Tony Raines           Chevrolet  120
 5.  Dale Earnhardt Jr     Chevrolet  120
 6.  Jason Leffler         Toyota     120
 7.  Jason Keller          Ford       120
 8.  Scott Lagasse Jr      Toyota     120
 9.  Brad Keselowski       Chevrolet  120
10.  Kyle Busch            Toyota     120
11.  Joe Nemechek          Chevrolet  120
12.  Kerry Earnhardt       Chevrolet  120
13.  Carl Edwards          Ford       120
14.  Brian Keselowski      Dodge      120
15.  Michael McDowell      Toyota     120
16.  Robert Richardson Jr  Chevrolet  120
17.  Kenny Wallace         Chevrolet  120
18.  John Wes Townley      Ford       120
19.  DJ Kennington         Dodge      120
20.  Brian Vickers         Toyota     120
21.  Michael Annett        Toyota     120
22.  Kertus Davis          Chevrolet  120
23.  Morgan Shepherd       Chevrolet  120
24.  David Green           Toyota     120
25.  Eric McClure          Ford       120
26.  John Borneman III     Ford       120
27.  Shelby Howard         Chevrolet  120
28.  Donnie Neuenberger    Chevrolet  120
29.  David Reutimann       Toyota     118
30.  Brandon Whitt         Ford       118
31.  Clint Bowyer          Chevrolet  117
32.  Justin Allgaier       Dodge      114
33.  Bobby Gerhart         Chevrolet  114
34.  Steve Wallace         Chevrolet  109
35.  Matt Kenseth          Ford       104
36.  Jeff Green            Chevrolet  104
37.  Danny O'Quinn Jr      Chevrolet  86
38.  Brendan Gaughan       Chevrolet  73
39.  Mike Wallace          Chevrolet  58
40.  Michael Waltrip       Toyota     52
41.  Mike Bliss            Chevrolet  41
42.  Kenny Hendrick        Dodge      19
43.  Mark Green            Chevrolet  2