DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Nobody wants to be known as a driver who is hard on equipment, which is why David Ragan still regrets the accident in the season-opening Daytona 500 that collected teammate Matt Kenseth.

Just like the incident between Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. last weekend at Richmond, Ragan said when a younger driver is involved in a crash with a veteran, especially one with a large -- and decidedly vocal -- fan base, there's not much you can do except take responsibility for it and try to move on.

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[A wrecker is] the worst reputation for the other competitors to see you as and for the other owners. Car owners don't like their racecars getting torn up and competitors don't like to get involved in wrecks.

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DAVID RAGAN

"When you get into wrecks, it's always going to be somebody's fault," Ragan said Friday at Darlington Raceway during preparation for Saturday night's Dodge Challenger 500. "And when you're the younger guy, with the least experience and the new kid, whether it's your fault or not, you're going to get blamed for it. That's just the bottom line.

"That's good, because it makes us more conscious and aware of what's going on around us and taking better care of our racecar. We don't want to wreck ourselves, much less somebody else, but sometimes it takes incidents like that to make us a little more aware of what's going on around us."

Ragan's Cup career began inauspiciously at Dover in 2006 when he crashed out of the race after 47 laps. But for the most part, Ragan has been able to avoid gaining a reputation as someone whom other drivers want to avoid on the track.

"It's the worst reputation for the other competitors to see you as and for the other owners," Ragan said. "Car owners don't like their racecars getting torn up and competitors don't like to get involved in wrecks. That's definitely something that sticks with you and that's something I've really tried to work on.

"Wrecks are going to happen but you just can't make a habit of it."

Since finishing 42nd at Daytona, the Georgia native has put together a series of consistent finishes, including a seventh at Las Vegas and fourth at Talladega, which has left him 14th in the point standings. He was 27th last year, four laps down, in his only previous trip to the Lady in Black.

While young drivers try their best not to initiate confrontations, Ragan said if you get wrecked by someone else, it's never a case of "forgive and forget."

"One, you can't just come out and throw out derogatory comments and say, 'Hey, I'm going to wreck you next week.' That's just kind of stupid," Ragan said. "At the same time, you can't forget in this sport. You've got to keep it in the back of your mind because everybody else isn't going to forget it.

"To let it pass by is the wrong thing to do because no one else will, either. Certainly we're not going to go wreck someone intentionally but the next time it's three-wide and we think about giving them a break, or it's a lapped car and we're going to let them pass, you just don't do it as often. You just log that stuff into your memory bank and it just kind of sits there for whenever you need it."

That's part of the learning process, according to Ragan, who said he keeps mental notes on other drivers with the goal of being one of those select few who commands respect from the other competitors in the garage.

"I have those [memories] cataloged for other people and other people catalog me into those same categories," Ragan said. "Hopefully, I'm getting out of the, 'Man, you've got to watch him because he's going to wreck you' [category] into the 'He's a pretty good racer and will race you clean.'

"That's guys like Jeff Burton and Mark Martin and Matt Kenseth, [because] you can race them hard and they're going to take care of their equipment. So ultimately, I just want everybody to know that I'm trying to take care of my equipment and I don't want to do anything stupid to jeopardize my finish. We're slowly working on that and I think we've made a lot of progress."

Unfortunately, the Darlington wall treats all drivers equally, as Ragan found out early in Friday's first practice. On his third lap, Ragan damaged the right side of his No. 6 Ford after contact with the SAFER barrier. His team was able to make repairs -- and he returned to the track later in the session to record a best lap of 172.481 mph, 33rd of the 45 cars entered.