Coming off the heels of his first career top-10 finish at Texas, Ragan hoped to head home with a similar result, but his day was thrown off course at lap six, when the No. 18 truck cut across the nose of the No. 50 Ford, causing some cosmetic damage to the nose.

Ragan started the 100-lap event in the 22nd spot, and would hold his position until the incident with Bobby Hamilton, Jr's No. 18 truck. "It was one of those deals, I guess. The 18 just came up the track and cut clear across my nose," said Ragan. "I don't know if he overdrove the corner or pushed real bad off or what, but he just shot up the track and across my hood, unfortunately."

With the caution flag flying for the incident, Ragan brought the No. 50 truck to pit road for repairs, and would restart the race in the 35th position when the race resumed at lap nine. Ragan made passes where he could, but fought a loose condition all day, forcing him to use extreme caution when attempting to make gains in position.

Ragan would continue to make progress throughout the race, ultimately taking the checkered flag in the 18th position.

"We were real loose at the start, we just couldn't seem to tighten our F-150 up," said Ragan. "I don't know if some of that was aerodynamic stuff from our front end damage or what. We could have used another 100 laps to pick up a few more positions, I think. With as many cautions as there were, it was hard to make up any positions. We did a good job with what we had, but we learned a lot. I learned a lot about the draft, I think a lot that will help for Talladega in a few months about staying in line and timing passes."