You would be hard-pressed to find a happier guy in the Sprint Cup Series garage than Marcos Ambrose. Nobody has a birghter smile or a better attitude than the Tazmanian racer and Ambrose truly is one of the good guys in this sport. He gained fame winning two V8 Supercar titles in his native Australia, but came to America to try his hand at Nascar. Ambrose has had a long and arduous journey, racing in the truck series and the Nationwide Series before getting his break in the Sprint Cup Series full time in 2009.
Because the V8 Supercar Series races exclusivly on road courses, Ambrose was expected to excel at Infineon and Watkins Glen and he did not dissappoint. The Tazmanian won three Nationwide races in a row at Watkins Glen from 2008-2010 and finished third, second and third in the last three cup races there. He has also run well at Infineon, but he has not had the same luck there. In his first race there in 2008, he had a mechanical failure that ended his bid for victory and last season he made the biggest gaffe of his career, stalling his car while trying to re-fire it after saving gas in the final laps. Marcos has been close, but just not close enough.
So this season, heading into Watkins Glen, Ambrose was fast off the truck, just like always, He even qualified third for the race. The one hiccup in the weekend was the weather. As the drivers climbed in their cars to start the race, the heavens opened. Despite Nascar's best efforts to dry the track, the rain never let up and the race was postponed and run Monday morning.
The race went green and Kyle Busch and AJ Allmendinger led the field into turn one. Pit strategy at road courses is very difficult to keep track of. The crew chiefs must work backwards to calculate fuel mileage and beacuse every team is on a different strategy, it is hard to tell who has a car that can contend. Busch and Ambrose spent the most time out front and were later joined by Brad Keselowski, Juan Montoya and Martin Truex, Jr.
The race was fairly calm, until Denny Hamlin's brakes failed, sending his Toyota into the turn one tire barrier at about 65 mph. Fortunately, Hamlin climbed from his demolished machine and walked to the ambulance under his own power. Kurt Busch also experienced brake failure and hit the tire barrier in "the carrousel", though his hit was not nearly as vicious as Hamlin's.
On the final restart, Ambrose spun his tires, allowing Busch and Keselowski to pull out in front. But Busch got loose, sending his Toyota out of the groove, which allowed Kes to grab the lead and Ambrose to pull into second. He passed Keselowski coming out of the innerloop and never looked back. While Ambrose cruised to the victory, it's what happened behind the leaders that may overshadow his vicotry a bit (for now at least).
Boris Said and David Ragan were racing hard coming out of the esses and when Said needed some more room to get back on pavement, he took it. He turned Ragan's No. 6 back into traffic, collecting David Reutimann. Both cars hit the inside guardrail at a dangerous angle, which sent Ragan's toward the outside wall and Reutimann's through the air, upside down and into the outside wall. Miraculously, neither driver was injured, aside from a tear in the leg of Reutimann's uniform. You can see the final laps and the spectacular wreck here.
But the stars of the show were definitly Ambrose and his Todd Parrot led crew. Ambrose uprooted his family to come to the United States and show he could win in Nascar. Late last season, it didn't look like he would get that chance because the Richard Petty Motorsports team he had joined was going bankrupt and it appeared as if he and teammate Allmendinger would have to look for different jobs for this season. But RPM overcame all that adversity and Ambrose was able to prove, once and for all, that he belongs in the Sprint Cup Series and that he is the best road racer in Nascar.
I'm sure all across Australia, where Ambrose has Dale Earnhardt, Jr-like status, fans are screaming "Aussie, aussie, aussie! Oy, oy, oy!" and celebrating their favorite son's first cup win just like the Ambrose fans here in the states. So congrats to Marcos on finally getting it done and silencing his critics. Every once in a while, nice guys do finish first.
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