Nascar 2009

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Ambrose starts last, finishes 3rd

USA 21st June 2009 - Marcos Ambrose has equalled his best NASCAR Sprint Cup Series finish with a storming drive from the back of the field to finish third in the Toyota/SaveMart 350 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California today.
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Ambrose battled late in the race with the likes of three-time Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart and eventual race winner Kasey Kahne after a storming drive saw him leap into contention after starting all the way back in 41st position.

The third-place finish, Ambrose’s fourth top 10 finish this season, came in a dramatic race where a green-white-chequered ‘overtime’ finish gave the Australian one last chance at victory, but third was all the two-time V8 Supercar champion could muster after one of the comeback drives of the season.

Ambrose performed the same feat at Watkins Glen last season when starting from the rear and also finishing third, starting from the rear on that occasion as a result of a qualifying rain-out and the field being set on owner’s points.

This time around Ambrose earned third place in qualifying behind Brian Vickers and Kyle Busch and was fastest in the first two practice sessions of the weekend, but an engine failure and subsequent change meant that Ambrose was forced to start today’s race from the rear of the grid.

Ambrose survived several close shaves throughout the race, including some door-banging moments with both Johnson and Denny Hamlin (including a brush with the pit wall) and a clash with Bobby Labonte exiting pit lane.

Ambrose’s efforts earned him the Mobil 1 Performance Driver of the Race Award as well as US$175,49 for his Little Debbie-backed #47 JTG Daugherty Racing entry.

The finish sees Ambrose jump two spots in the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings into 18th position after the first 16 races of his first full season at Cup level. He races again next weekend in Loudon, New Hampshire.

WHAT MARCOS HAD TO SAY …

Post-Race Press Conference with second place Tony Stewart and Third Place Marcos Ambrose:

QUESTION:Marcos Ambrose, tell us about your run.

MARCOS AMBROSE: “I thought I was at Eldora (Speedway) all day. It was just really slippery. Those rear tyres just didn't have a lot of forward grip. It's fast on the roll (ED: through the corner), but just getting the power to the ground is hard. We've got a lot of power in these Cup cars, and you've got your work cut out for you.

“I was hot, I was mad, I was happy, I was sad all together. ?I'm just proud of my team, JTG Daugherty, having trusted me to drive their car, and took a chance putting me in. No one really knew what I was all about, and I just want to thank them. I have to thank Michael Waltrip Racing, too, for giving us great support, just an awesome combination right now, great group of guys.

“We had a bad day yesterday. We were in the hole pretty good. They just rallied around me and gave me the support I needed, the confidence to go out there today to just get aggressive and get to it and not skip a beat.”

QUESTION.You had great training for this last year at Watkins Glen. When you look at this, you say the team, but everything that you guys went through in the last couple of days and then the wreck and happy hour, it just kept coming, but you would not be held back. Is this just your determination and resolve?

MARCOS AMBROSE: “I even cut myself shaving this morning. That's how bad this weekend has gone. We've just got a resilient attitude, never say die attitude, and when you're having a bad day. We made it worse yesterday in happy hour, whatever happened there, and just really proud of my guys for giving me the support that I needed and the car that I needed to do what we did today.

“You know, it's just a tough world, the Cup racing scene. There is no easy lap, there is no easy day. It's intense, especially those restarts, and just really just never give up. ? ?I knew what to expect, unfortunately, from Watkins Glen last year. That was a long day, and I think today was just as long if not longer. I think the car is sort of straight, sort of. Most of the damage is in the front and side. There's not too much in the back, which is a good sign.”

QUESTION:You came in at the beginning of the race, toward the beginning of the race and you pitted early and seemed to have a different pit cycle or trying to do something different than anybody else. With the way the cautions played out, in the long run did that help you or did that make you have to really work harder and gain the positions on the track?

MARCOS AMBROSE: “We'll have to look back and see how it all played out. I felt like I passed 200 cars, so maybe it didn't (laughter). ?Our plan was just to get going, see how far I could get up there, and then if I was getting held up too long, just come in and get out of there.

“I was just so worried about when they were all getting wadded up and the tyres are down, just so easy to get damage and not really show any speed. I just complained and whinged on the radio until they said ‘yeah, come on in, get some tyres, let's go’ and we just got out of sequence. ?

“We ran a heavy fuel strategy, too. We ran a lot of fuel today trying to set ourselves up to pass cars, and we didn't have the fuel mileage that many others had. So we knew we couldn't do it just on stretching fuel mileage, so we had to do it on speed. So just getting clean air, staying out of all that riff raff I think played … at least got us to lap 70 before we really got back in the pack again, and I think that helped.

QUESTION: I guess that No. 13 table luck ran out for you. Before the last restart, you were running about a second and a half to two seconds behind Tony and Kasey. Was it just lack, again, of the rear tyre grip where you couldn't close up on them, or were you hoping they might wreck each other?

MARCOS AMBROSE: “No, we had four laps of practice, and we just didn't know how our rear tyres were going to wear. We went to a package that we thought was going to look out for the tyres, and it proved to probably be worse for the tyres because the car was rolling around too much.

“So during the pit stops, I knocked around with the track bar, getting it up, one side only, which I can't stand, but I like to do everything together at a road course, left and right, it's all the same. ? So unfortunately we were limited in what we could do. Then I just burnt the rear tyres off it. I couldn't keep the tyres underneath me for long enough. We're going to have to go back home and have a good hard look at what some other guys did.

“Following ‘Smoke’, I could see his rear end pretty well. I've got a photographic memory; I'll just go back and draw it on paper and say, hey, I want it just like this. I think Smoke had the fastest car there on the longer run, just Kasey had track position and he was good on the restarts on that outside lane. ?

“I’m just proud of my team because we had limited time on Saturday to get ready for it, and those rear tyres were shot. A lot of guys had trouble with forward bite, us less so, but if we were going to win the race, that's our weak spot.”

QUESTION:Can you describe how those final couple of restarts worked for you, and was it fun?

MARCOS AMBROSE: “Intense. It's no fun. I mean, we had like the downhill to go before the white flag, and we were going to finish it, and then the caution comes out for the green white checker. You know that you can go from third to 33rd with one mistake after putting in all that effort all day. ?

“I think all of us just wanted to bring it home somehow, and you know, I really wanted to attack Smoke. He deserved second. I wasn't going to take it off him unless I had a clean pass. I just couldn't get to his bumper bar in time.

“Jimmie was peppering my bumper. ‘Just bring it home’; that's all I was thinking. ? ?You can go so pear shaped on those restarts, just for the result, one lap to go, you're running third to 33rd, I just didn't want to take that chance. It's very much a pressure environment when it's like that.”

QUESTION: I wanted to ask you, going into this race with Kasey Kahne, he did not have the track record that would say he would be a candidate to win this race with his finishes. In the little time you've been in this series, have you been able to be around him enough on a road course to be able to see or were you able to gauge what he was able to do today?

MARCOS AMBROSE: “I can't normally get close enough to Kasey because there's too many girls hanging around (laughter). ?You know, he was doing it. I mean, he was running that car as hard as it would go, and Smoke is one of the best road racers there is.

“I'd like to think that I'm half okay. He (Kahne) beat us on speed, and he got the pole here last year. He deserves it, he's a road race winner now, and he did it on his speed, he didn't do it on fuel mileage or anything else. He was fast, and he deserves it, absolutely.”

QUESTION: Pretty close to the end there, I think it was the 11 car gave you a pretty narrow racing line looking at the end of the pit lane. Can you tell me about that experience and was it as hair raising for you as it was for us?

MARCOS AMBROSE: “Yeah, I saw what was happening, and I thought, I'm going to have a headache because I thought I was going to hit that end of pit lane, and I thought, ‘I'll just hit it’. I got axle hop and somehow when I opened my eyes I was down in the corner. I turned right and off I went. I don't know how I got through there. It was really close.

QUESTION:Do you like the restarts? Do you like the double file restarts the way they are right now, three weeks in? ?

MARCOS AMBROSE: Yeah, I do. I think they're great. It really shakes it up. For two laps, three laps, it takes us a while to really clear ourselves out and get back in our groove. Maybe with 20 or 10 to go, just cut us a break and make it single file. Take some pressure off. ?

QUESTION:How much of a threat was Marcos on some of those restarts?

TONY STEWART: “You know, he's good at it, and the same with Juan. Juan gave us fits twice on the restarts. He's just good at it. He knows how to get going there, and Marcos was the same way. The right side was a little bit better on restarts, and the first time there when Juan was on the inside of us, we lost a spot to him but got it back. ?

“Every time the caution kept coming, I was like, man, we’re having to climb uphill for this. That's why I'm proud with the second place run. It wasn't exactly the place to be, and we made a lot of spots up on the right hand side to get us up there, so that helped us obviously. To be able to hold Jimmie and Juan and Marcos off like that, I was pretty proud of that.”

RESULTS: Toyota/SaveMart 350 at Infineon Raceway
Race 16 in the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
1. #9 Kasey Kahne 113 laps
2. #14 Tony Stewart
3. #47 Marcos Ambrose
4. #48 Jimmie Johnson
5. #11 Denny Hamlin
6. #42 Juan Pablo Montoya
7. #44 AJ Allmendinger
8. #33 Clint Bowyer
9. #24 Jeff Gordon
10. #19 Elliott Sadler

2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Driver’s Standings - After Race 16 of 36
1. Tony Stewart 2364
2. Jeff Gordon 2280
3. Jimmie Johnson 2207
4. Kurt Busch 2084
5. Carl Edwards 2051
6. Ryan Newman 2046
7. Denny Hamlin 2009
8. Greg Biffle 1992
9. Kyle Busch 1962
10. Matt Kenseth 1957
11. Mark Martin 1926
12. Juan Pablo Montoya 1917
18. Marcos Ambrose 1704

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Ambrose Wins at Watkins Glen

USA 9th August 2009 - Australian racing driver Marcos Ambrose has claimed his second NASCAR win by defending his Zippo 200 crown at the Watkins Glen International road course in New York state today.
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Ambrose, who claimed his first NASCAR victory in the same race last season, dominated today’s Nationwide Series event to take the chequered flag ahead of Americans Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards.

Ambrose started from second position in today’s race closely following polesitter Kevin Harvick in the early stages.

On lap 13 Ambrose made his move to take first place from Harvick, holding the lead until making his first pit stop for fuel and tyres on lap 19.

Ambrose was clearly the pacesetter throughout today’s 82-lap race aboard the #47 STP-backed entry of JTG Daugherty Racing, moving up the order and making his final pit stop just past half-race distance on lap 45.

At the restart after that final visit to pit lane Ambrose was in fifth place, but quickly moved forwards and in only a handful of laps was on the back on race leader, NASCAR bad boy and current Nationwide Series points leader Kyle Busch.

After a hard-fought battle, Ambrose made his race winning move on lap 64 when he passed Busch down the inside entering the ‘Bus Stop’ section of the Watkins Glen circuit, resulting in Ambrose taking the lead that he would never relinquish.

For his part, Busch was surprised by the late-braking move, shortcutting the Bus Stop section as a result.

Despite several late-race restarts, from that point on Ambrose was never headed to take his second NASCAR career win since leaving V8 Supercar racing in Australia to forge a career in NASCAR in 2006.

This season Ambrose has made it to the top level of NASCAR, racing full-time in the Sprint Cup Series for the first time this season.

Ambrose was making his first start in the Nationwide Series today to defend his Zippo 200 crown with JTG Daugherty Racing. He led the most laps of any driver with 26 laps led, also winning the Sunoco Diamond Performance Award and Mahle Clevite Engine Builder of the Race Award.

Tomorrow, Ambrose will look to grab his third NASCAR victory and first in the top-flight Sprint Cup Series when he starts from fourth place in the Heluva Good! at The Glen.

Earlier in the day, Ambrose set the fastest time in both the Sprint Cup practice sessions held at Watkins Glen today aboard his regular #47 JTG Daugherty Racing entry.

Ambrose currently lies 18th in the Sprint Cup Series standings and is the highest ranked first year driver in the ultra-competitive championship, with five top 10 finishes so far this season.
MARCOS AMBROSE – Victory Lane Interview:

“Here we are in Victory Lane. It's just awesome. I've got so many people to thank.

“Tad and Jodi Gescheckter, who plucked me out of nowhere to give me a chance here in NASCAR, and here I am.

“Big Brad Daugherty, I've got to say hi to me or else he'll punish me beyond words.

“It's just an awesome day for us. We're all really proud. STP - two wins in two years. It's just awesome.

“I had to surprise him (Kyle Busch). I didn't have the straight line speed to really attack him. If I had waited for the last 10 laps there is no way he would have let me past so I just tried to surprise him and I surprised myself!

“It was an all-in move and I knew I had to do it then because the element of surprise was there and that's what got the win for us.

I was worried (at the restarts). You know, it's Kyle Busch, and he doesn't give you an inch and I had Carl (Edwards) behind me too and I bumped into him earlier at Turn 1, so I had my hands full.

“But those guys are fair. They race really hard but it's just awesome.

“Awesome to be alongside them, awesome to compete against them and awesome to beat them.”
RESULTS: Nationwide Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen International
1. #47 Marcos Ambrose 82 laps
2. #18 Kyle Busch
3. #60 Carl Edwards
4. #33 Kevin Harvick
5. #5 Ron Fellows
6. #29 Jeff Burton
7. #16 Greg Biffle
8. #6 David Ragan
9. #88 Brad Keselowski
10. #99 Scott Speed
AMBROSE SCORES CAREER-BEST SECOND IN SPRINT CUP
USA 10th August 2009 - Marcos Ambrose has scored his best ever NASCAR Sprint Cup Series finish by grabbing second place in a thrilling Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen in Watkins Glen, New York today.

Ambrose finished just behind current Sprint Cup points leader Tony Stewart at the end of today’s 90-lap race, which was delayed by one day due to rain at the 2.45-mile road course yesterday.

Driving the #47 Little Debbie-backed entry of JTG Daugherty Racing, Ambrose started from fourth position but his race was turned on its head in the early stages, when Ambrose was one of only three cars to elect not to pit at a caution on lap 23.

With Ambrose now off-strategy to the front-runners, he faced a sizeable challenge to get back into the lead pack, despite leading the race on two occasions for a total of nine laps as his alternate strategy played out.

At the final series of pit stops, Ambrose and his crew chief Frank Kerr opted to take only fuel, resulting in a quicker pit stop and propelling Ambrose from outside the top 20 up into fourth place, but meaning that he would have to finish the race on well-worn tyres.

Despite his older rubber, Ambrose had more than enough speed to pass Kyle Busch – his rival in Saturday’s spectacular Nationwide Series win – to take second place.

Unfortunately for Ambrose, two-time Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart possessed enough pace to hold out Ambrose over the final laps, denying the Australian his first top-level NASCAR victory.

For their efforts, Ambrose earned the Mobil 1 Command Performance Award and Kerr the DirecTV Crew Chief of the Race Award.

Ambrose rises one spot in the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points standings after today’s outstanding result to now sit in 17th place, clearly the highest placed first year driver and now just 114 points behind Michael Waltrip Racing stable-mate David Reutimann.

Ambrose will be back in action this weekend at the 2.0-mile Michigan International Speedway for the Carfax 400, the 23rd race in this year’s Sprint Cup Series.
RESULTS: Sprint Cup - Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen
1. #14 Tony Stewart 90 laps
2. #47 Marcos Ambrose
3. #99 Carl Edwards
4. #18 Kyle Busch
5. #16 Greg Biffle
6. #42 Juan Pablo Montoya
7. #2 Kurt Busch
8. #13 Max Papis
9. #33 Clint Bowyer
10. #11 Denny Hamlin

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USA 23rd Aug 2009 - Marcos Ambrose rates his amazing third place finish at the daunting Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee today as the most satisfying result of his NASCAR career to date.
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The Australian claimed his best-ever NASCAR Sprint Cup Series finish on an oval in the gruelling 500-lap Sharpie 500 night race, arguably the toughest race on the 36-race Sprint Cup schedule.

The result clearly underlines Ambrose’s as a driver to watch in the top-flight Sprint Cup level of the sport, in his fourth season of NASCAR racing since leaving Australia as a two-time V8 Supercar champion to forge a career in North America.

Ambrose declared that this race was even more satisfying than his two Nationwide Series wins at Watkins Glen and his second place finish at the Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen two weeks ago behind series leader Tony Stewart.

This superb finish, Ambrose’s seventh top 10 finish this season and his fourth top five result of the season, keeps Ambrose in 17th position in the Sprint Cup points standings, clearly the best first year driver.

Ambrose started from 25th place in the 43-car field and never dropped lower than that position in his charge towards the front aboard his Clorox-backed #47 entry, exhibiting strong car speed all night in the 500-lap race.

For most of the race Ambrose was inside the top 10 and towards the end of the race he battled with NASCAR legend Mark Martin (who competed in his 1000th NASCAR race tonight), NASCAR bad boy Kyle Busch and Greg Biffle in the top five.

It was at this same race in 2003 that Ambrose witnessed his first ever NASCAR race live and in person, renting a camper van with an Australian mate and watching the 500-lap battle from the infield.

Later that season he went on to win his first of two V8 Supercar championship victories.

When Ambrose first transitioned to NASCAR in 2006, he admitted feeling intimidated about racing on the 30-degree banks of Bristol – known as the world’s fastest half-mile – as he learned to race on NASCAR’s high speed ovals.

At this race today, Ambrose stood out in a field of the world’s best oval track racing drivers, underlining his status as the best performed first year driver in this year’s elite Sprint Cup field. He also finished in 10th place earlier this season at Bristol.

Earlier in the day, global consumer giant Kimberly-Clark announced that it will back Ambrose and his JTG Daugherty Racing team next season for five races with its Kleenex brand, joining existing sponsors Little Debbie, The Clorox Company, Bush’s Beans and iRacing.com. Full release below.

Kyle Busch won tonight’s Sharpie 500 ahead of Martin, Ambrose, Biffle and Denny Hamlin.

MARCOS AMBROSE: “This is more satisfying than any of the results I’ve had, even all the wins at Watkins Glen, because it’s on such a big stage against the best at a place like Bristol. The biggest thing about this result is that I’ve done so well in a race that will arguably go down in NASCAR history. Mark Martin is a legend of this sport and to race him at the front of the pack in front of 180,000-odd people at Bristol and run hard against Kyle Busch, who is one of the most talented drivers anyone’s ever seen, is just awesome and it’s truly a privilege. I have to pinch myself to run against Mark Martin in his 1000th race and finish just off his rear bumper. I’m racing at one of the best races in the world against the best drivers in the world. I was here as a fan with my eyes and mouth wide open a few years back. This place is unbelievable and to run well here against the sort of drivers we rubbed doors with today is a privilege and just the best feeling. This place is still intimidating for me, even today. The fans are loud and the track is so fast. 500 laps around here is a battle in itself. To be racing these guys like we did tonight is like a dream. I have to thank my team for believing in me and giving me this chance. The crew did an awesome job. It’s just awesome. I’m so excited to be a part of this.”

RACE RESULTS: Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway
Race 24 in the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
1. #18 Kyle Busch 500 laps
2. #5 Mark Martin
3. #47 Marcos Ambrose
4. #16 Greg Biffle
5. #11 Denny Hamlin
6. #39 Ryan Newman
7. #2 Kurt Busch
8. #48 Jimmie Johnson
9. #88 Dale Earnhardt Jr
10. #17 Matt Kenseth