Despite a torn up race car and 200 mph tape flapping in the wind, David Ragan's Chase hopes were still alive until the final one hundred laps of Sunday's Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond International Raceway. Ragan started the day seventeen points behind twelfth-place Clint Bowyer and with the No. 07 Jack Daniel's Chevrolet in his sights.

Ragan shot right out of the box, taking the 12th-spot away from Bowyer on just the third lap. Making progress throughout the first couple runs, Ragan appeared to be a real threat to Bowyer's Chase hopes as long as he could stay out of trouble.

That, as it turned out to be, was more difficult than he thought. Racing hard into Turn 1 on Lap 151, the rear end of Ragan's No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion slid out from under him, sending him hard into the outside wall. Ragan's Roush Fenway Racing teammate Matt Kenseth could do nothing as his sliding race car slammed hard into Ragan's left front fender.

"I felt like we started the race off pretty good and sometime after that third stop, we just seemed to lose it," Ragan said following the race. "You know, brought out that caution and got up too high and slapped the wall, kind of a freak incident. Felt like I had a right rear going down. We pitted and everything was fine there, and I thought we still had a shot to get a top-10 or top-15 finish."

Using pit strategy and staying out when the majority of leaders pitted, Ragan made his way back into Chase contention despite the damage. With Bowyer mired in traffic and Kasey Kahne struggling all day, making the Chase once again appeared to be a possibility for the sophomore driver.

As the race soldiered on, Bowyer began catching the battered No. 6 Ford Fusion while working through heavy traffic. Racing hard with Bowyer and the No. 01 of Regan Smith, contact between the No. 07 and the No. 01 sent Smith up the track and into Ragan's left front tire.

The contact cost Ragan a number of positions and caused a significant tire rub that sent smoke billowing each time the car headed into the corner.

"Bottom line is Clint was on the bottom and just punted the 01 and shot the 01 up the track," Ragan said of the incident. "I was on his right rear quarter panel and ran right into him. Thought I might have had Clint boxed in where I could have got around the 01 and maybe put a car between us, but he did what he had to do. He just gave the 01 a shot and I happened to be on the outside of him."

"I was underneath the 01 and he just drove - he elected to drive across the hood of my car," Bowyer explained following the race. "So I mean, it was - you know, obviously you don't want to do anything to harm the 6 car. You know, you want to be able to earn your way into this thing. It would be pretty chicken of you to do something like that on purpose or intentional. It was just an unfortunate situation. We were racing hard and we talked about it. I was trying to pin you behind a lapper and you were trying to get under me. It was just good hard racing."

The contact not only damaged Ragan's chances of battling with Bowyer for position, it also put an end to the Georgia-native's Chase hopes. While Bowyer drove on to a 12th-place finish, Ragan wound up a disappointing 32nd - ending the regular season 14th in points, seventy-seven points behind Bowyer.

"Well, regardless of how we ended up today, I told everyone before the race," Ragan added, "whether we made the Chase or not, it wasn't going to be solely on the Richmond race."