For Ragan, the second year Georgia native, he clearly has picked up the pace after a disappointing rookie season in the No. 6 Ford. “That’s an awesome run,” he said. “Whether we were at Daytona,

Talladega or Richmond or Bristol, that would be great but to do it at Darlington is just something special. Darlington is an awesome track. You’re running laps out there and you think about the guys that made this place famous like Cale Yarborough and (Bill) Elliott and David Pearson and people like that. It just makes you realize how fortunate we are to come out here and race at such a cool track. It’s definitely one of the best tracks on the circuit. We had a lot fun. Our pit crew did an awesome job today. We picked up spots every time and it was an overall great run. We’re getting this deal somewhat figured out.”

Kenseth, who had finished 38th or worse in three consecutive races, was plenty pleased, too. “I was really happy for our finish,” said Kenseth, the 2003 series champion. “We’ve been running so terrible and having such bad luck, so I was happy for our finish. The only little thing frustrating is the racing was kind of weird at the end. Everybody is riding around half-throttle and when you have a hard tire and a little fuel cell, everybody is trying to stretch that last five laps, so that was kind of weird. But, other than that, it was good. It was a great finish for us and we ran pretty good.”

DODGE CHALLENGER 500 RESULTS

Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to

SPEED will televise the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race XXIV and the NASCAR Sprint Showdown live on May 17, as well as provide more than 90 hours of support programming prior to the event. Stay tuned to SPEEDtv.com for frequent updates on the history of the event and all the details about this year’s action.