David Ragan earns second Nationwide Series win after showdown with Carl Edwards at Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn. – David Ragan shot ahead of Carl Edwards in a green-white-checkered finish to win the NASCAR Nationwide Series Food City 250 Friday night by a 1.379-second margin.

Debris on the .5-mile oval’s frontstretch brought out the race’s final caution with eight laps remaining, setting up a two-lap run to the finish four laps after regulation. Ragan, who earlier in the race saw Edwards jet ahead on the outside line on a double-file restart, elected to take to the outside as the leader.

“The outside was just great all night,” Ragan said. “I really struggled passing cars on the bottom.

“I just can’t say enough about our Nationwide team and everybody back at the Roush Fenway shop.”

The win was Ragan’s second Nationwide Series victory this season, his first coming at Talladega last spring. Ragan gained the lead after maneuvering lapped traffic to where he could pin Edwards in the preferred middle groove and drive by on the bottom.

Edwards said he hesitated to overdrive his car and hit Ragan, his teammate, on the restart with a good points day the risk.

“David’s car was just so much faster through the center,” Edwards said. “I just can’t say enough about David Ragan. We didn’t come here to finish second, but he’s a great guy.”

Points leader Kyle Busch was involved in an incident with the lapped car of Chase Austin on lap 54 while leading. Busch came out from the garage after repairs and ended up 28th, 59 laps down.

Busch led one lap before contact with Austin, but his points lead was cut to 248 with Edwards’ second-place finish. The series heads to Montreal next weekend, where Edwards will again look to slim Busch’s lead down.

Pole-sitter Brad Keselowski finished third after an eventful night that saw him nudge leader Justin Allgaier, cut down Allgaier’s tire and sustain enough front-end damage to head to pit road off sequence.

The incident, which Keselowski said was “100 percent” his fault, sent Allagaier spinning for the first time of the night.

“I just was racing hard and I guess I was racing a little too hard,” Keselowski said. “I feel terrible about it. He had a really great car and could have won the race.”

Allgaier’s second spin on lap 250 ended the race before the white-flag lap was completed.

Kevin Harvick, who won at Bristol in the spring, was fourth and Matt Kenseth fifth after recovering from a spin on lap seven.

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