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Ragan humble,with a drive to win

CONCORD David Ragan was about to win the Daytona 500. He was leading on the restart and he wanted to remain there during the final laps. To slip in front of drafting partner Trevor Bayne, he dropped from the track's high line to the low line.

The move - going below the yellow line - clearly violated NASCAR rules. But it's a violation NASCAR invokes as frequently as the NBA invokes traveling. Yet NASCAR waved its black flag, Ragan retreated to 15th place and his opportunity to win the year's biggest race was crushed. Ragan showed his displeasure by slapping the steering wheel of his Ford Fusion.

Here's a driver who is 25, has been racing fulltime in NASCAR's top series since 2007 and, despite his 90-year-old grandmother praying for him back in Henderson, Ga., had yet to win.

Jack Roush, CEO of Roush Fenway Motorsports, the team for which Ragan drives, calls the loss "horrifying" and "devastating." He adds: "There was pressure from the team, the sponsors, fans and family, and he let it slip away."

But Ragan didn't scream at NASCAR for enforcing the rule, didn't scream at his crew because he needed somebody to blame and didn't scream at the world because everybody saw the mistake.

"David is like nobody I have ever met," says his long-time girlfriend Jacquelyn Butler. "He's a 40-year-old man in a 25-year-old's body."

Says Ragan: "I think losing your mind and cursing out the pit crew, that's all show. That doesn't do anything for me. I try to stay level-headed and that's just the way you're brought up. That's the way you're disciplined as a kid.

"Kyle Busch wasn't disciplined as a kid. He's the best driver on the track right now, in my opinion, and he goes off sometimes and he has to apologize later. That's the way he is or Tony Stewart or (Juan Pablo) Montoya. It doesn't mean I have less desire because I don't have a cow if something crazy happens.

"I try to keep everything in perspective. Sometimes people look and say, 'That's your weak point,' and 'You don't show enough emotion.' I'll argue that."

frenzy. Interviewers tried to get him to jump and shout. They failed.

"The way we grew up we were raised not to show a lot of emotion," says Brett Ragan. He and David "don't say, 'I love you' to each other."

Brett is David's cousin. They grew up in Unadilla, Ga., a town 45 miles south of Macon without a stoplight, police or McDonald's.

Brett, a set-up mechanic for Roush teammate Carl Edwards, bought a 2,500-square foot house with David Ragan in a subdivision in Huntersville. They cut their own grass and do their own cleaning.

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