Ragan crashes in practice, still feels like a contender (cont'd)

That became apparent in final practice, when Ragan turned 52 laps, about three times as many as the 18 laps he ran in the first practice, and was 14th-best on the sheet.

"The backup car's good," Ragan said. "Our primary car was good, but with this [new car] all the cars are the same. You can have a little bit different suspension or geometry but basically, with the old cars you had to have them with the body just in the right place -- but you don't have that anymore.

"We feel like our backup car is just as strong, and I got more laps in it than the primary, so maybe it's even stronger. I feel like we've got a top-five or a top-10 car -- I'm just going to be 30 spots back at the start. But it's going to be fine and it'll be a fun race."

Ragan's team put the engine from the primary car into his backup after final practice, but he'll still have to drop from his 13th position on the grid to the rear of the field for using his backup car. His best Martinsville finish, 11th in the spring, came from the fourth starting position.

The two times Ragan's started worse than 40th here, he's finished beyond 25th, so he knows what he's faced with as he tries to maintain his 41-point edge on Bobby Labonte in the Chased-out standings.

"Yeah, the biggest thing is just staying on the lead lap and between everyone beating and banging and some cautions, we should be able to make it to the front pretty quick," Ragan said. "I just have to drive a super-smart race and just have to be perfect the rest of the weekend, but it can be done."

Ragan feels like his first Cup win could come at any time.

"Texas has been a great track for us, we ran strong there in the spring and so have Phoenix and Homestead," Ragan said. "At Homestead, we finished in the top 10 last year and the Roush cars are always fast there, so we feel like we've got a pretty good shot the last five races to certainly finish in the top five and get some more top-10s; but we feel like there's really no place that we count ourselves out before we get there.

"The Chase is a great thing in the sport and every team elevates itself for the Chase. It's a great thing to be in and we feel like we've put a little bit of pressure on ourselves to finish 13th and we're almost racing like we are in the Chase so next year it won't be a surprise and we'll know how to act once we get there."