{"id":860,"date":"2011-07-02T23:30:01","date_gmt":"2011-07-03T03:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/?p=860"},"modified":"2011-07-03T00:41:44","modified_gmt":"2011-07-03T04:41:44","slug":"david-ragan-gets-first-career-sprint-cup-victory-at-coke-zero-400-in-daytona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2011\/07\/david-ragan-gets-first-career-sprint-cup-victory-at-coke-zero-400-in-daytona.html","title":{"rendered":"David Ragan gets first career Sprint Cup victory at Coke Zero 400 in Daytona"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click “Like” to share this with your friends<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
David Ragan celebrates after his victory at the Coke ZERO 400 (Photo by Chris Graythen\/Getty Images; Courtesy NASCAR))<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s been a long four and half years for David Ragan. He took over for the legendary Mark Martin at Roush-Fenway Racing in the #6 car but despite several close calls (including the Daytona 500 earlier this year) had yet to register a victory at NASCAR\u2019s elite level.<\/p>\n

That all changed Saturday night when Ragan (with help from his teammate Matt Kenseth) survived a pair of green-white-checker starts at the Coke Zero 400 in Daytona, Fla., and picked up his first career Sprint Cup win in the process. If you didn\u2019t know Ragan was one of the best stock car racers in the world, well, you just wouldn\u2019t know. He\u2019s a prototypical unassuming, boy-next-door type with virtually no ego.<\/p>\n

During the down times as an independent driver, Ragan says he relied on his strong faith in God that was passed down to him by his parents and grandparents.<\/p>\n

“There were a lot of tough nights when we only had one race car and I tore it up and we didn\u2019t know if we had enough funds to keep racing,” Ragan told me outside his hauler during an interview at Texas Motor Speedway. “That\u2019s when you have to ask the Lord for some help and some guidance to do the right thing. A lot of times it\u2019s tough to make the decision on your own. You know what you want to do and it always helps to have someone to rely on to help you out. I can remember some tough nights where I was questioning myself. \u201cCan I really drive?\u201d or, \u201cIs this the right thing for me to do?\u201d But at the end of the day, a lot of prayers were answered and certainly things worked out for the good.”<\/p>\n

For the full transcript of my interview with Ragan, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For more Inspiring Athletes interviews with NASCAR drivers, click on the links below and be watching next week for interviews with Trevor Bayne and Kyle Petty:<\/p>\n

Justin Allgaier<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Richard Petty<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Darrell Waltrip<\/strong><\/a>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click “Like” to share this with your friends It\u2019s been a long four and half years for David Ragan. He took over for the legendary Mark Martin at Roush-Fenway Racing in the #6 car but despite several close calls (including the Daytona 500 earlier this year) had yet to register a victory at NASCAR\u2019s elite…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":418,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,388,5,4],"tags":[399,23,400,151,190,220,217,140,198,401,10,204,241,24,141],"class_list":["post-860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-athletes","category-racing","category-sports-features","category-sports-news","tag-coke-zero-400","tag-darrell-waltrip","tag-daytona","tag-daytona-500","tag-justin-allgaier","tag-kyle-petty","tag-mark-martin","tag-matt-kenseth","tag-motor-racing-outreach","tag-mro","tag-nascar","tag-richard-petty","tag-roush-fenway-racing","tag-sprint-cup","tag-trevor-bayne"],"yoast_head":"\nDavid Ragan gets first career Sprint Cup victory at Coke Zero 400 in Daytona - Inspiring Athletes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"David Ragan gets first career Sprint Cup victory at Coke Zero 400 in Daytona - Inspiring Athletes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Click “Like” to share this with your friends It\u2019s been a long four and half years for David Ragan. He took over for the legendary Mark Martin at Roush-Fenway Racing in the #6 car but despite several close calls (including the Daytona 500 earlier this year) had yet to register a victory at NASCAR\u2019s elite…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2011\/07\/david-ragan-gets-first-career-sprint-cup-victory-at-coke-zero-400-in-daytona.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Inspiring Athletes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-07-03T03:30:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-07-03T04:41:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/files\/2011\/07\/david-ragan-victorylane-300x200.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chad Bonham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"David Ragan gets first career Sprint Cup victory at Coke Zero 400 in Daytona - Inspiring Athletes","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"David Ragan gets first career Sprint Cup victory at Coke Zero 400 in Daytona - Inspiring Athletes","og_description":"Click “Like” to share this with your friends It\u2019s been a long four and half years for David Ragan. 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Chad\u2019s professional journey began at the University of Tulsa where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (1993) while working extensively in athletic media relations and serving as a sports editor for The Collegian. Since then, he has written extensively for such publications as Relevant, CCM, Christian Retailing, New Man, Charisma, Today\u2019s Christian, Ministries Today, Breakaway, Brio, Sports Spectrum, Christian Single, Faith & Friends, Sharing the Victory and Gospel Today. He has authored, co-authored or ghost written and edited 13 books including Life in the Fairway (New Leaf Press), Glory of the Games (Cross Training), Wrestling with God (River Oak), Spiritual Journeys (Relevant) and the four-part Fellowship of Christian Athletes Core Value Series; Excellence, Teamwork, Serving and Integrity (Regal Books). Chad is currently working on five new books including Sooner Legacy, Husker Legacy and Lessons From Sooner Football (Cross Training) as well as The Faith of Stock Car Racing (Judson Press). When he's not writing, Chad lends his efforts to various independent television and film projects. He was the coordinating producer for Choosing Life (2010) and Life Happens (2011). Chad is currently serving as producer on a forthcoming documentary about Super Bowl champion Brian Kinchen. Chad and his wife Amy live in Broken Arrow, Okla., with sons Lance (September 2003), Cole (February 2008) and Quinn (February 2011).","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/author\/cbonham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":870,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860\/revisions\/870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}