BROOKLYN, Mich. -- After David Ragan wrecked out of the Nationwide Series race on Saturday at Michigan International Speedway, he arrived at the track Sunday morning to find car owner Jack Roush waiting on him.

“

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.

”

DAVID RAGAN

Race to Chase

Pos. 10 through 14

Pos.	Driver	+/- 12th
10.	Matt Kenseth	+48
11.	Kasey Kahne	+21
12.	Denny Hamlin	--
13.	Clint Bowyer	-26
14.	David Ragan	-26

Roush had some blunt words of advice for his young driver.

"OK, David, you can wreck once in a while, but you've had your wreck for a while now. Let's focus on making sure we stay on the black stuff [Sunday]," Roush told Ragan prior to the running of the 3M Performance 400.

Ragan went out and did much more than merely keep his No. 6 Ford on the black asphalt of the 2-mile oval. On the final restart with two laps to go, Ragan actually held the lead -- even though it was a bit of a mirage. He had stayed out on the previous caution while most of the other contenders pitted and took on fresh right-side tires.

Although he quickly was passed by eventual race winner and Roush Fenway Racing teammate Carl Edwards and also eventual second-place finisher Kyle Busch, Ragan held on to finish third. That matched the highest finish of his brief Cup career (watch video).

"We were good on the long runs," said Ragan, who also finished third at Richmond in September 2007 in what was his rookie season. "The race worked out in our favor. Our car had good forward bite and turned good all day. The 99 [of Edwards] and the 18 [of Busch] were the class of the field, but we made an adjustment like every stop and kept getting a little better. If it had been a 500-mile race, we might have had something for them."

Ragan was running fourth when the final caution flag of the day came out. Crew chief Jimmy Fennig wanted him to pit along with the rest of the leaders, but Ragan hesitated -- and in this case, all was not lost for those who hesitate.

"If you get right down to it, there probably was a little miscommunication," Ragan said. "I think Jimmy probably wanted to take two tires and make a small adjustment. I felt like everybody was going to stay out. They ducked down pit road at the last minute. I was a few seconds late making my decision, and we just decided to stay out. I saw the 88 [of Dale Earnhardt Jr.] was staying out, so that made my decision feel just a little bit better -- knowing somebody else was staying out with me.

"I guess it worked out. We were running fourth when everybody else pitted, and we ended up finishing third." (Continued)