Ragan takes owner's talk to heart, runs third at MIS (cont'd)

Roush said this has been an incredible year of improvement for Ragan, who came into the race 14th in points and moved into a tie for 13th with Clint Bowyer, only 26 points out of 12th. The top-12 drivers in points after the first 26 regular-season races qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup during the final 10 events of the season.

"He's matured more than I could have imagined this year for his age," Roush said. "He's 22 years old, and it's amazing. When Carl [Edwards] came onto the scene, I think he already was 26. Mark Martin was 28 and Jeff Burton was 28 and Greg Biffle was 28. David Ragan is way ahead of everybody that's currently driving with us in terms of what he's doing at his age, because the other guys weren't involved with us at that time.

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"We're learning from David, and when we get it figured out, we'll be able to do for him what he needs to have done, the same as we've tried to do for everybody else at Roush Fenway Racing."

With only three races remaining before the Chase cutoff after Sunday, Ragan said he was giving himself a little pep talk after staying out on the old tires for the final laps at Michigan.

He said he told himself, "Don't mess up. You've got to get a good points day. It's always fun to try to win the thing, but you don't want to put yourself in a bad position and take yourself out of a top-five finish and finish 15th with it. Just do all you can do."

The strategy worked. Now he heads to next week's race at Bristol Motor Speedway with momentum -- and armed with the knowledge that after Bristol he will race at the Auto Club Speedway in California that traditionally has been a strong track for Roush Fenway, much the same as has Michigan.

"We just have to focus on getting good finishes, and then the points take care of themselves," Ragan said. "We're racing with pretty good company -- with [Matt] Kenseth and [Clint] Bowyer and [Kevin] Harvick and those guys right in front of us. They're going to run well, so we need to run well, too, and hope we don't have any DNF's the next three weeks. I think we'll be fine."

Roush added: "The fate of David as it relates to the Chase will be based on whether he's involved in a wreck at a bad time or whether we break a part, which ends up being my fault, and whether the other people that are in the back four positions in the top 12 have better luck than he does in terms of the way that things develop for them on the racetrack.

"But David is doing everything that he can."

Ragan admitted that he is confident but apprehensive about heading to Bristol, where he finished 21st earlier this season.

"At Bristol, sometimes things are out of your control," Ragan said. "We've had some good speed at Bristol, but we've never had a great finish. Qualifying is going to be important; we're going to need to have good track position, and basically try to ride around until Lap 400. We've tried to have that perspective at a lot of tracks we've been to this year, and it's paid off for us. So again, we just have to keep on going and keep on learning. It doesn't get any easier from here."

Then Ragan smiled, and relished in what he accomplished Sunday at Michigan after admittedly losing control of his car in the Nationwide accident (watch video).

"It was a good, solid weekend," Ragan said. "It's good to be a Ford Racing driver right now.

Also
• Edwards leads strong Roush contingent at Michigan
• Gordon, Kahne take fall in points after MIS trouble
• Menzer: Visit back 'home' more meaningful for Roush