Rookie Ragan Runs Wild
At Mark Martin's leaving, Jack Roush finally named David Ragan as the driver to take the No. 6 wheel. While Roush does not think it was a mistake to place a rookie behind the wheel in one of the most difficult tracks todate, Ragan is remorseful. 20-year-old Ragan is the son of Ken Ragan, a former regular NASCAR winner. David Ragan was, before this race, going to talk to ken Schrader about renting a shop from him. Now, his hopes seem dashed.
This, being David Ragan's second Nextel Cup start, behaved and drove wildly on the Martinsville track after getting entangled in THREE accidents in total, one of them sending Schrader home. He bounced around the Martinsville track wildly around Subway 500. And the last straw was at lap 311 where he ‘locked his brakes' and sent Schrader into the fence. The impact of Schrader's car hitting the fence was so hard that Schrader had to retire from the race after the hit.
Anyone would have been mad too if he had been running in the top 10 for most of the race and being sent home at the 11 th hour. Schrader was enraged right after the accident as he got out from his car, picked up a piece of what's remaining of the vehicle and tossed it aside angrily. He, then, walked toward the pit to face the rest of his team.
Thankfully, Ragan does not deny that the accident was a direct result of inexperience and vehemently denies that he caused the accident intentionally. There were no reasons for him to ruin Schrader's car because he wanted to rent a shop from more experienced driver in the future. It would have done him no good if he did so. Ragan said that he just overdrove the car into Turn 1, locked the brakes and rammed into Schrader. He admits that it is his fault and it is his mistake.
Schrader was not the only Ragan-victim. On lap 447. Ragan sent Kyle Busch spinning and slamming into the wall trying to avoid the wild Ragan. Busch, who was in the top 10, finished 18 th .
While the accidents were not intentional, perhaps, what NASCAR officials could have done considering the way he was driving, was to park him. Maybe?