Marcos Ambrose currently sits 13th in the NASCAR Busch Series standings and is third among Busch regulars. This weekend Ambrose will make his second start at Dover International Speedway, a tough, portland cement concrete surfaced one-mile oval known as ‘The Monster Mile’. The Australian was 27th in his fifth race in last year’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Dover. Ambrose will be looking for his fourth Raybestos Rookie of the Race Award this weekend as he seeks to improve on his third place in the Raybestos Rookie of the Year standings.
2007 NASCAR Busch Series Points Standings – After Race 13 1. Carl Edwards 2075 2. Kevin Harvick 1652 3. Dave Blaney 1483 4. Matt Kenseth 1431 5. David Reutimann 1393 6. Regan Smith 1393 7. David Ragan 1358 8. Clint Bowyer 1349 9. Jeff Burton 1340 10. Greg Biffle 1320 11. Kyle Busch 1318 12. Bobby Hamilton Jr 1316 13. Marcos Ambrose 1303 14. Casey Mears 1302 15. Juan Pablo Montoya 1302
Casey Mears won his first Nextel Cup race at the Coca-Cola 600 when he stayed out while the leaders came in for a quick splash of fuel. It's no secret Mears didn't have the best car that night, but his team managed the fuel situation better than the others. The question is, should winners be determined because they have nothing to lose and can gamble on fuel?
I don't know about the rest of you, but after five-plus hours of racing in Charlotte, I was actually standing in front of my TV for the final laps of the Coca-Cola 600. Aside from the Daytona 500, I don't think we've had a better finish to a race then what we saw this weekend, and yes that includes Martinsville.
Complaints are at an all-time high about NASCAR staging races, throwing phantom debris cautions to benefit guys like Jeff Gordon and Johnson. Well for once we didn't have that. It was great to see the final 50 laps run under green, not interfered with by the dreaded yellow flag.
Take absolutely nothing away from Casey Mears in Sunday night's Coca-Cola 600. He drove his butt off, the team made some great decisions on pit road and he deserves a trip to Victory Lane more than nearly anyone in Nextel Cup. There's something right about a Mears winning a race on the Memorial Day weekend. Plus, who would have expected names like Yeley, Petty, Sorenson and Vickers to pop up in the top five? All five of those cars ran well all night and deserved to be on the lead lap. But top-five finishes? Get real.
Do you really want to see cars coasting around the track well off race pace, trying to conserve an extra gallon of fuel? Remember Phoenix, when nobody would get out of line because they were so worried about not having enough fuel to make it to the end? I wouldn't call that exciting racing.
I'm with Bill. I love the possibility of gas mileage coming into play. It is a part of motorsport. It is a very big part of racing in other sanctions such as F1 where the whole field is very seldom bunched up by a full course caution. It gives young guns their furst shot and old dogs with good long run set ups another shot at glory.
The question is not who is fastest? If you like that go drag racing. The question is who can cover a set distance in the least amount of time with pit stops, tire wear and gas mileage included?
In one quick motion, the hopes of Bobby Hamilton went down the drain at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Early in the 200 lap race, the driver of the McDonald’s Ford was forced to pit under green flag conditions for a tire issue. The untimely pit stop costs Hamilton two laps to the leaders and placed the Tennessee native in a bad position he would never recover from. The trouble led him to a 33rd place finish and a drop of 5 positions in the Busch Series Point’s Championship. Four of the five drivers to pass in the point’s race were full-time Nextel Cup drivers.
“We will put this entire weekend in the rearview mirror and head to Dover next weekend,” Hamilton said. “I have come close to winning on the Monster Mile before, and hope we can put the McDonald’s Ford up front on Saturday afternoon.”
The Busch Series will take the green flag in Saturday afternoon at 3:00pm on ESPN.
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