CUP: Ragan Stuns With Last-Lap Victory

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Talladega Superspeedway has always been a track where the unexpected happens, and Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 saw a finish that went far beyond unexpected to verge on the unbelievable.

On the last lap of a green-white-checkered finish in a long-delayed race, Front Row Motorsports teammates David Ragan and David Gilliland hooked up to finish 1-2 and give car owner Bob Jenkins his first NASCAR Sprint Cup victory in more than 400 career starts.

Aaron's 499 Race Results

Carl Edwards was third in a Roush Fenway Racing Ford, followed by Michael Waltrip in one of his own Toyotas and points leader Jimmie Johnson in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

The marathon race was marred by a three-and-a-half hour rain delay and two mammoth crashes that snared more than half the field.

Ragan was eighth and Gilliland 11th at the final restart, but somehow found each other and got the front to score a hugely emotional triumph for everyone on the team.

It was a long and interesting race.

With rain threatening, Carl Edwards started from the pole, but quickly dropped back as outside pole-sitter Martin Truex Jr. took the lead on the opening lap.

At the start of the race, Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin dropped to the back of the field in anticipation of Hamlin yielding to Brian Vickers at the first caution.

Matt Kenseth moved to the lead on Lap 7, his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota again showing speed at a restrictor-plate track.

The first big drama occurred on Lap 22, when Travis Kvapil and Dale Earnhardt Jr. made contact, with both drivers pitting for body repairs and going down a lap.

On the following lap, Trevor Bayne lost an engine, bringing out the first caution and allowing Hamlin to get out of his JGR Toyota and Vickers to replace him.

Then, it got ugly.

On Lap 43, Kyle Busch nudged Kasey Kahne at the entrance to Turn 1, with Busch then going head-on into the wall and the field wadding up behind them.

“I’m alright and I caused it,” said Busch. “… I just hate that I caused a hell of a melee for everybody.”

All told, 13 cars got wrecked in the incident.

Among the cars taken out or at least out of contention were Stewart, Vickers, Greg Biffle, Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick, all potential race winners.

Busch also took out Kahne in the Daytona 500 earlier this year.

This time, Kahne was visibly irked. “No I didn't talk to him,” Kahne said when asked if he had spoken with Busch. “I think we both probably know what happened."

Once the racing resumed, Kenseth dominated the first half of the race, as he had at Daytona before being sidelined by engine problems. All told, he led 84 of the first 100 laps.

Daytona 500 winner Johnson went to the point on Lap 118, right about when drivers and spotters started reporting sprinkles around the 2.66-mile track.

Four laps later, rookie Ricky Stenhouse Jr. went to the point as the cold and rain drew ever closer. But he was only in front briefly before Carl Edwards took the lead.

Then, on Lap 124, the caution came out for rain at the superspeedway, with four Fords out front: Edwards, Stenhouse, Logano and Keselowski.

Edwards made his pass just seconds before the yellow came out, but his timing proved perfect. The heavens then opened up, and the red flag came out for 3 hours, 36 minutes and 6 seconds.

Bobby Labonte led briefly after the green, although by Lap 135, Kenseth was back out front.

Johnson took the lead after a round of green-flag pit stops, but a caution for a blown tire on Michael McDowell’s car in Turn 2 on Lap 174 set up a late-race shootout.

The track went green on Lap 179, with Johnson on the inside and Kenseth outside.

Then, with seven laps to go, the field wadded up on the backstretch, with Kurt Busch going airborne and over and landing on Ryan Newman’s car crashing hard. Stenhouse triggered the crash when he tried to go high and hit JJ Yeley, who went down the track and into Busch. From then it was on, as Danica Patrick, Bobby Labonte, Clint Bowyer and several others were also involved in the crash. All told, 11 cars crashed.

Kenseth took the lead just before the accident, with Edwards second and Johnson third.

“Just not enough room,” said Yeley. “… We were just trying to feed the kids and win the race.”

On the green-white checkered finish, Johnson lined up inside and Kenseth outside, but Kenseth misjudged his run and the two Front Row drivers hooked up and drove to victory in a remarkable end to a long and often ugly race.

Points After Aaron's 499 Race

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.

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Saint Louis advances with 20-point victory over Aggies

San Jose, CA –  Dwayne Evans scored 16 of his 24 points in the first half as Saint Louis pulled away late to take a 64-44 decision over New Mexico State on Thursday in NCAA Tournament second round action.

Cody Ellis had 12 points and made 3-of-4 shots from behind the arc to go along with six rebounds for the fourth-seeded Billikens (28-6), who set a new school record for wins and advance to the third round for the second straight year, to face 12th-seeded Oregon.

Cory Remekun added 11 points and six boards, while Evans also pulled down six rebounds in the victory.

"Coming into this game coach talked a lot about just not being happy to be here," Evans said. "That we're here to win games. That's the difference from last year just because we weren't experienced. After getting here last year, I think guys have different expectations this year."

Bandja Sy paced New Mexico State with 17 points and had nine rebounds for the 13th-seeded Aggies (24-11), who have lost their last seven NCAA Tournament games and haven't won in the tournament since 1993.

New Mexico State had won five straight coming in and was making its 20th NCAA Tournament appearance in program history. The Aggies earned a spot in the postseason after capturing their second straight WAC title.

After an Aggies rally to the start the second half had them within six points, Saint Louis re-opened a double-digit lead around the midway point of the half. Remekun kicked off and capped a 12-3 swing which saw Saint Louis take a 51-36 edge with 8 1/2 minutes remaining.

The damage had been done, as the Aggies had no answer after fighting back, and the Billikens' lead grew to 60-39 with 4:19 to play before cruising to victory.

Sy scored New Mexico State's first seven points to start the second half with a spark, as his triple two-plus minutes in closed the gap to 33-23. Evans though, returned the favor, scoring six of his team's first eight points of the second half, the last being a layup that made it 37-23.

The Aggies answered with a 10-2 spurt capped off by two Sy free throws which made it 39-33 at the 12:57 mark, but the contest changed from there.

"We had to rebound, like I said, and then take care of the ball," New Mexico State coach Marvin Menzies said. "And I thought we did a good job in a couple of those areas, but at the end of the day we turned the ball over 16 times, which you're not going to win a NCAA tournament doing that unless you're turning the other team over 16 times as well."

Saint Louis jumped out to an early 11-4 lead, while New Mexico State struggled offensively. The Aggies' deficit quickly grew to 24-10 on Remekun's slam with 4 1/2 minutes to play in the first half.

The Billikens took a 29-16 edge into the break, with Evans connecting on seven of his first 11 shots after 20 minutes of play. New Mexico State, however, made just 8-of-31 field goal attempts and had nine turnovers.

Game Notes

Evans became the 28th player in Saint Louis history to join the 1,000-point scoring club ... NMSU's Sim Bhullar, a freshman who is the tallest player in Division I at 7-foot-5, finished with four points and 11 boards ... New Mexico State has a 10-22 record in the postseason tournament ... It was the seventh meeting in the all-time series which SLU leads, 5-2. Both teams also met in the 1952 NCAA Tournament ... The Billikens' fourth seed is the best over eight postseason appearances ... New Mexico State also lost last year as a 13 seed, falling to Indiana, 79-66 ... The Aggies shot a mere 27.9 percent and turned the ball over 15 times.

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Waiters scores 25 as Cavaliers stop 11-game slide against Bulls with 101-98 victory

CHICAGO –  Dion Waiters scored on jumpers, turnarounds and an assortment of moves in the lane. Shaun Livingston made a couple of a big plays in a rare start, and Wayne Ellington provided some scoring punch when the reserves were in the game.

Even without Kyrie Irving, the improving Cleveland Cavaliers had too much talent for the banged-up Chicago Bulls.

Waiters scored 25 points, Livingston added 15 in the same state where he starred in high school and the Cavs held on for a 101-98 victory on Tuesday night that snapped an 11-game losing streak against the Bulls.

"Without Kyrie, we knew it was going to be tough, period," Cleveland coach Byron Scott said. "But I thought guys stepped up big time."

While Irving rested a sore right knee in street clothes on the sideline, Waiters converted a fadeaway jumper and a layup before Tyler Zeller drove along the baseline for a layup that helped Cleveland open an 87-78 lead with 7:33 left in the game.

The Bulls were down two when they got the ball back with 37.8 seconds left, but Luol Deng missed a long jumper and Livingston hit two free throws to make it 100-96. Luke Walton then forced a turnover to get the ball back for the Cavs.

Ellington finished with 13 points as Cleveland held on for its third win in the last four games, bouncing back from a difficult 109-105 loss at Miami on Sunday.

"We've been playing some very solid basketball last month, month-and-a-half," Walton said. "We still struggle down the stretch once in a while, here and there. But we're grinding and we're learning and we're definitely a much better team right now than we were at the beginning of the season."

Carlos Boozer scored 27 points and Deng had 26 for Chicago, which has dropped five of seven. Kirk Hinrich returned to the lineup after missing three consecutive games with a lingering right elbow issue and finished with 11 points, 11 assists and six rebounds.

"Until we get the level of intensity up and play with high energy on both ends of the floor, play for 48 minutes, the results are not going to be good," Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said. "You get what you deserve in this league and we're getting what we deserve right now, so until we change that we're going to have problems."

The Bulls played their first game of the season without reserve forward Taj Gibson, who sprained his left knee when he stepped on the foot of Oklahoma City guard Reggie Jackson in the fourth quarter of Sunday's 102-72 loss to the Thunder. Gibson is expected to miss at least two weeks in another devastating injury for Chicago.

Derrick Rose has missed the entire season while he recovers from major left knee surgery, and Hinrich also has missed a bunch of games due to a myriad of injuries.

"We have to find a way," said Bulls center Joakim Noah, who has been playing with a right foot injury. "We have to play with more urgency and play together. I think that is disappointing right now. It's been a long stretch where we haven't been playing great basketball."

Alonzo Gee finished with 11 points for the Cavaliers, who open a five-game homestand against Toronto on Wednesday. Tristan Thompson added 10 points and eight rebounds.

Chicago and Cleveland handed the lead back and forth for much of the third quarter. Three consecutive charging calls on the Bulls helped the Cavaliers open a 72-67 advantage on Walton's long jumper with two minutes left in the period, but Noah found Deng inside to help Chicago get within one.

The Bulls had a chance to go in front in the final seconds of the third, but Marco Belinelli's 3-point attempt was blocked by Livingston, and Ellington hit a 3 as time expired to lift Cleveland to a 75-71 lead.

Waiters was 10 for 16 from the field and is averaging 19.8 points in his last five games. The rookie, who was the No. 4 overall pick in last year's draft, had 26 points in the loss to Miami.

"Just being patient, letting the game come to me, and just taking what the defense gives me," Waiters said. "That's what I'm trying to do is just be aggressive, looking to attack, keep the defense on their heels."

NOTES: Rose and Irving have never faced each other in an NBA game. "Well, I think we're all looking forward to that," Scott said. "My greatest hope is that No. 1 that Derrick Rose comes back and he's back to being the old Derrick Rose. If that happens and they get a chance to go against each other, I think that would be very interesting." ... Livingston played his prep ball at Peoria Central H.S. ... Chicago's 115-86 win at Cleveland on Nov. 2 is the worst loss of the season for the Cavaliers.

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Jay Cohen can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/jcohenap

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