Ambrose Almost Owned Em!

[Jez 0]

And why didn't anyone mention this?-

AUSTRALIAN Marcos Ambrose has elbowed his way through the field to catapult from last to second and score his best NASCAR finish.

Ambrose scorched past more cars than any other driver on his way to second in the Corona Mexico 200 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez road course in Mexico City.

Driving a Ford Fusion, he qualified fourth for the 80-lap NASCAR second-tier series but was forced to start from the rear of the field.

Ambrose decided to change the clutch in his car after problems in practice, which meant he was sent to the rear of the grid. He had moved to 23rd after the start before the first caution of the day came out on lap three, but had to deal with more complications.

After the first round of pit stops, officials ruled his JTG Racing pit crew had left the pit wall and entered pit lane too early.

He then had to complete a drive-through penalty under green flag conditions, again sending him to the rear.

Ambrose again wove his way through the field, snatched third when he passed Patrick Carpentier in the esses then took second with a move past Scott Pruett at the end of the long front straight.

He had begun to chase down leader Kyle Busch and was edging closer with every lap but ran out of time.

The result was Ambrose's second top-10 finish in Mexico from two starts and his first top-10 result this season.

Ambrose is 13th in the standings after nine of 35 races in the series. Ambrose said that he thought he could have taken the lead from Busch within two laps, but was happy with second after the day-long drama.

"We're really pleased," Ambrose said. "I feel like we had been battling all day. We had an overheating motor there at the end. We had to start at the back with a clutch problem and that was still there in the race and we had to watch that. Then we had to come from the back again because we miscalculated the fuel and we had an ignition stall. Then we had a penalty on pit lane and had to come from the back again. It has just been a day of fighting."

In other motor racing news, Australian Will Power won the final race of the Champ Car World Series on Sunday on the streets of Long Beach, the last remnant of the 12-year rivalry between the newly unified American open-wheel series.

The race was run with Champ Car teams, drivers and equipment, but the points awarded were for the IRL's IndyCar Series, which ran a race earlier on Sunday in Japan because of a scheduling conflict.

Less than 24 hours after a historic IRL victory by Danica Patrick, the first woman to win an IndyCar race, the final race for the series that began as CART in 1979 was run before a large, appreciative crowd that included Patrick, who arrived after a 12-hour plane ride.

Power, who started fourth in the 20-car field, spoiled the show a bit, though, jumping into the lead with a great start and leading for most of the 83-lap, onehour and 45minutes Long Beach Grand Prix.

"Yeah, it was a very nice day, really good start, good pit strategy and we were very quick," Power said.

"I feel really happy for [my team owners] and the team to win the last Champ Car race. We had problems all weekend, just little problems. But we fixed everything. My engineer did a great job, the car was nice and it all came together in the race. I was just cool in the car, relaxed. When it comes together, it just comes together nicely."

So can any NASCAR fans give me their opinion on Ambrose? I'd like to know what people think of him, especially American motorsport fans.

[aussief1 4]

Yeah too right Jez, I heard the result on the news and thought wow what a result!!!!!

I asked the same question to Bruce and Mike a while ago in Marcos first season of Craftsman Truck and they didn't seem to have that much of an opinion on him at that early stage, but now they should be able to give us Australians some feedback weather he is a chance to really make a go of things in NASCAR.

[pumpdoc 2]

I watched the race and let's say your report is very generous, he got very lucky to get to 2nd place.

[aussief1 4]

I watched the race and let's say your report is very generous, he got very lucky to get to 2nd place.

I thought a fair number of things would have to have had gone his way to make up that many places. But still must have been a decent drive. What's your take on him anyway Bruce??

[HandyNZL 1]

Am I allowed to say he was lucky to win the SV8 championship? I've never really ranked him up there with Lowndes or Skaife to be honest....but like you two I have wondered how he was going in the US as you just don't hear of him, so pretty much figured he wasn't doing too well.

Bit of a trend with him and Montoya only really shining at street/circuit courses...

[pumpdoc 2]

I thought a fair number of things would have to have had gone his way to make up that many places. But still must have been a decent drive. What's your take on him anyway Bruce??

Decent driver, but nothing special. He wrecked out Boris Said this race and payback will be a $itch.

[Eric 0]

It was a great finish for Marcos, but almost owning them is a bit of a stretch.

Ambrose is an alright driver, I think. He's shown positive signs, but I don't think he'd ever make it in Sprint Cup (the highest level of NASCAR competition). Also, bear in mind that the Nationwide Series is dominated by the Cup drivers, so getting a top 10 in Nationwide for a non-Cup driver like Ambrose is actually a bigger deal than it seems.

Ambrose would've won Montreal last year, so he's really solid on the road courses, but his oval performance is average. He's a solid driver, but not a threat week-in-and-week-out. I doubt he'll ever go to Cup, but I think he'll win a race or two in Nationwide at some point. His oval performance has improved.

I rate Ambrose above most of the transition drivers, though V8s to NASCAR is probably a much easier transition than open wheel to NASCAR. It's not all their fault, though, in terms of Franchitti, Hornish, and Montoya. They got rushed up too fast, but then again, it is their fault for being greedy. They wanted big bucks, so instead of taking the time and learning in lower series like Scott Speed is going, they're ruining their careers. Sort of. Getting paid $2mil to win in the IRL over 10 years and doing 2 years of NASCAR riding around in 30th every race equal out to about the same salary...

Handy, while JPM did win Infineon last year, he was a non-factor at Watkins Glen. His team does have issues with the car, and while it was looking up for Montoya last year, he hasn't lived up to the few good runs he had on ovals.

I don't really rate any of the transitional drivers that highly, though. I understand Franchitti doesn't have the best equipment, so maybe he isn't to blame for running 30th every race, but he is to blame for crashing 12 times per race. JPM is an average at best driver. Speed's doing alright in ARCA, but his equipment is 20 times better than anyone else's, so when you think of it that way, he's underachieving. Hornish looked good at Daytona, but he's sucked since then. Penske finished 1-2 at Daytona, and while they aren't a top flight team, a decent driver could still get top tens with them. Allmendinger improved greatly at the end of 2007, but improving from FTQ every race isn't exactly an accomplishment. His teammate, Brian Vickers, has completely owned him.

But back to Ambrose, he isn't great, but he's not bad. He's decent.

[Rainmaster 7]

It was a great finish for Marcos, but almost owning them is a bit of a stretch.

Ambrose is an alright driver, I think. He's shown positive signs, but I don't think he'd ever make it in Sprint Cup (the highest level of NASCAR competition). Also, bear in mind that the Nationwide Series is dominated by the Cup drivers, so getting a top 10 in Nationwide for a non-Cup driver like Ambrose is actually a bigger deal than it seems.

Ambrose would've won Montreal last year, so he's really solid on the road courses, but his oval performance is average. He's a solid driver, but not a threat week-in-and-week-out. I doubt he'll ever go to Cup, but I think he'll win a race or two in Nationwide at some point. His oval performance has improved.

I rate Ambrose above most of the transition drivers, though V8s to NASCAR is probably a much easier transition than open wheel to NASCAR. It's not all their fault, though, in terms of Franchitti, Hornish, and Montoya. They got rushed up too fast, but then again, it is their fault for being greedy. They wanted big bucks, so instead of taking the time and learning in lower series like Scott Speed is going, they're ruining their careers. Sort of. Getting paid $2mil to win in the IRL over 10 years and doing 2 years of NASCAR riding around in 30th every race equal out to about the same salary...

Handy, while JPM did win Infineon last year, he was a non-factor at Watkins Glen. His team does have issues with the car, and while it was looking up for Montoya last year, he hasn't lived up to the few good runs he had on ovals.

I don't really rate any of the transitional drivers that highly, though. I understand Franchitti doesn't have the best equipment, so maybe he isn't to blame for running 30th every race, but he is to blame for crashing 12 times per race. JPM is an average at best driver. Speed's doing alright in ARCA, but his equipment is 20 times better than anyone else's, so when you think of it that way, he's underachieving. Hornish looked good at Daytona, but he's sucked since then. Penske finished 1-2 at Daytona, and while they aren't a top flight team, a decent driver could still get top tens with them. Allmendinger improved greatly at the end of 2007, but improving from FTQ every race isn't exactly an accomplishment. His teammate, Brian Vickers, has completely owned him.

But back to Ambrose, he isn't great, but he's not bad. He's decent.

I don't know anything about this, but I agree with you completely, great post.

[aussief1 4]

Decent driver, but nothing special. He wrecked out Boris Said this race and payback will be a $itch.

Thanks for the feedback Bruce

It was a great finish for Marcos, but almost owning them is a bit of a stretch.

Ambrose is an alright driver, I think. He's shown positive signs, but I don't think he'd ever make it in Sprint Cup (the highest level of NASCAR competition). Also, bear in mind that the Nationwide Series is dominated by the Cup drivers, so getting a top 10 in Nationwide for a non-Cup driver like Ambrose is actually a bigger deal than it seems.

Ambrose would've won Montreal last year, so he's really solid on the road courses, but his oval performance is average. He's a solid driver, but not a threat week-in-and-week-out. I doubt he'll ever go to Cup, but I think he'll win a race or two in Nationwide at some point. His oval performance has improved.

I rate Ambrose above most of the transition drivers, though V8s to NASCAR is probably a much easier transition than open wheel to NASCAR. It's not all their fault, though, in terms of Franchitti, Hornish, and Montoya. They got rushed up too fast, but then again, it is their fault for being greedy. They wanted big bucks, so instead of taking the time and learning in lower series like Scott Speed is going, they're ruining their careers. Sort of. Getting paid $2mil to win in the IRL over 10 years and doing 2 years of NASCAR riding around in 30th every race equal out to about the same salary...

Handy, while JPM did win Infineon last year, he was a non-factor at Watkins Glen. His team does have issues with the car, and while it was looking up for Montoya last year, he hasn't lived up to the few good runs he had on ovals.

I don't really rate any of the transitional drivers that highly, though. I understand Franchitti doesn't have the best equipment, so maybe he isn't to blame for running 30th every race, but he is to blame for crashing 12 times per race. JPM is an average at best driver. Speed's doing alright in ARCA, but his equipment is 20 times better than anyone else's, so when you think of it that way, he's underachieving. Hornish looked good at Daytona, but he's sucked since then. Penske finished 1-2 at Daytona, and while they aren't a top flight team, a decent driver could still get top tens with them. Allmendinger improved greatly at the end of 2007, but improving from FTQ every race isn't exactly an accomplishment. His teammate, Brian Vickers, has completely owned him.

But back to Ambrose, he isn't great, but he's not bad. He's decent.

Thanks Eric much appreciated

I don't know anything about this, but I agree with you completely, great post.

[Eric 0]

Have to add this to my feedback...

I'm an Ambrose fan. I just saw a clip from some lame NASCAR show on ESPN, they had Boris Said on with Ambrose to discuss the incident. Ambrose came on wearing a Said Head wig (Boris is known for his afro), and that made me a huge fan. He was a really nice guy, as where I lost all respect for Boris. I used to be a huge Said fan, but even after Marcos apologized and said all nice things about Boris, Said continued to attack him and tell him he was angrier and angrier. Very disappointed with Said's immature behavior, but Ambrose got himself a new fan. Of course, when he debuted the Aussie Vineyards bucket hat at the Michigan truck race, I knew deep down I was gunna like this guy.

So that's a fourth Aussie I like, along with Webber, Will Power, and Ryan Briscoe. Anyone else wanna recommend some Aussies for me to support?

[Jez 0]

Have to add this to my feedback...

I'm an Ambrose fan. I just saw a clip from some lame NASCAR show on ESPN, they had Boris Said on with Ambrose to discuss the incident. Ambrose came on wearing a Said Head wig (Boris is known for his afro), and that made me a huge fan. He was a really nice guy, as where I lost all respect for Boris. I used to be a huge Said fan, but even after Marcos apologized and said all nice things about Boris, Said continued to attack him and tell him he was angrier and angrier. Very disappointed with Said's immature behavior, but Ambrose got himself a new fan. Of course, when he debuted the Aussie Vineyards bucket hat at the Michigan truck race, I knew deep down I was gunna like this guy.

So that's a fourth Aussie I like, along with Webber, Will Power, and Ryan Briscoe. Anyone else wanna recommend some Aussies for me to support?

Yep. Me. Gimme some money.

[Eric 0]

Yep. Me. Gimme some money.

I thought you retired from karting...'course if you ever wanna get dizzy, there's a stock car with your name on it in my garage (not really, but duct tape and a Sharpie could change that )

[HandyNZL 1]

Found the "crash" and I use that term very loosely: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e98c_kRSfso

OK, for the non followers of V8 Supercars, that is whats called a friendly tap. It's called rubbing. Just ask Tom Cruise. An everyday occurance in V8's

[aussief1 4]

Found the "crash" and I use that term very loosely: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e98c_kRSfso

OK, for the non followers of V8 Supercars, that is whats called a friendly tap. It's called rubbing. Just ask Tom Cruise. An everyday occurance in V8's

Thanks for posting the clip. Hard to tell exactly what happened from that camera angle.

[Eric 0]

It wasn't a huge deal, but Boris did make a point: Ambrose should've and easily could've backed off, but instead chose to just keep plowing Boris through the grass. Not exactly a classy move.