David Ragan was the Raybestos Rookie of the Race at California Speedway. Ragan scored a 16th-place finish and took top rookie honors for the second consecutive race. Ragan holds a nine-point lead (28-19) over Juan Pablo Montoya in the Raybestos Rookie standings entering Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Ragan is fifth in the Nextel Cup Series championship standings, 65 points behind leader Mark Martin and 37 behind fourth-place Kevin Harvick. He leads sixth-place Clint Bowyer by six points and seventh-place Joe Nemechek by 11. A Raybestos Rookie has been in the top-10 in the NextelCup Series championship standings for 19 consecutive races, dating back to the 2006 Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway. A Raybestos Rookie has finished in the top 15 in 38 consecutive Nextel Cup races. Kyle Busch and Kasey Kahne share the best finish by a Raybestos Rookie in nine previous NextelCup Series races at Las Vegas. Busch placed second in 2005, 1.661 seconds behind race winner Jimmie Johnson while Kahne finished second in 2004, 3.426 seconds behind winner Matt Kenseth.(Raybestos PR), see full report, standings and history on my Rookies page.(3-7-2007)
