Now, normally, my posts with similar titles are a good-natured poke at motorsport around the globe...but not this time. I've decided to use this instead to give my kudos to Marcos Ambrose on a truly incredible weekend (all the photos are from his website by the way).
While Cup qualifying got rained out, the Nationwide series did manage some practice and Marcos put up times in the top ten which would ordinarily be expected given his road course background. But this was no ordinary NW field...I think there were 20 drivers doing double duty and while Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon weren't in the NW cars, guys like Kyle Busch, Robby Gordon and Kevin Harvick were so you couldn't say this was going to be a walk in the park for the Aussie.
Ambrose leads the way from Busch, Kenseth and Harvick.
Saturday morning came and went, with Marcos qualifying 12th for the NW race and being amongst the frontrunners, if not the frontrunner, in Cup practices...this was starting to look like Sonoma all over again, but would he get that storybook finish?
It didn't look that way as he got shuffled a bit at the start of the NW race. Jeff Burton lost it in front of him (whether or not Marcos tapped him I don't know...the replays were inconclusive but he looked to be too far back to have given Jeff a touch), he sent Sam Hornish Jr into a spin when Sam didn't get good traction in the esses while Marcos did and then with about 15 laps to go, he sideswiped a backmarker.
But, like most fairytales, one has to overcome adversity before the happy ending and this was no different.
His luck changed with 33 laps remaining. As Ambrose pulled into his pit box to get service on his final stop for the day, the caution flew so he (and Ryan Newman who pitted at the same time) escaped without penalty. Carl Edwards then divebombed Clint Bowyer on the restart allowing Marcos to gain a couple more spots in the ensuing chaos. Indeed, by the time the pitstops were all sorted, Marcos was in the top five and had more fuel than the cars in front of him.
Marcos taking the chequered flag.
They say that to finish first, first you have to finish and that rang true as the doorslamming battle between Burton and Busch meant that Ambrose and Jimmie Johnson were able to close down the gap. When Burton made his retaliatory move on Busch, that lifted Marcos to third behind Jeff and Jimmie. Unable to keep up with their pace, Marcos seemingly cruised along saving a little fuel and I imagine gave a huge smile when, first Johnson and then Burton ran out of gas and Marcos took the lead for good with three laps left.
And so, in his 59th start in the 59 car, Marcos Ambrose became the first Australian to win in the Nationwide series and got a tremendous reception after his on-track victory celebration. In nice gestures, Carl Edwards paid tribute to him when interviewed after the race, Kyle Busch gave him a handshake on the podium and even Jack Roush congratulated him on a job well done.
Not only did he smoke those tyres good, he also kept the car off the wall on that narrow front straight!
That's generally where the story says 'The End' right? Ahh, no...not in this case.
After starting shotgun on the field (ignoring those guys sent to the back for engine changes and whatnot...if you want to get picky, then I think he actually started 41st), Marcos stormed his way through the field to be running 15th after 23 laps. The final cycle of pitstops came and went and the #21 Ford Fusion was inside the top ten...but could he keep it going or would similar misfortune strike him like at Infineon?
With a slipping clutch and fading brakes, Marcos passed Martin Truex Jr for fourth and inherited third when Newman ran wide in turn one before 'the big one' happened behind. That allowed his brakes to cool down but that clutch was going to be an issue since the guy behind him, Juan Montoya, isn't well known for his patience. Ambrose went to the inside on the restart, telling Juan that if he wanted past, he'd have to go around the outside...something the Columbian did try on the final restart and ended up having to battle Truex allowing Marcos some breathing room as he closed in on Tony Stewart.
Marcos took the #21 to heights not seen by the team in over three years.
That was where the story ended as Ambrose finished behind Tony and Kyle, giving the Wood Brothers their best finish since 2005 and the best ever finish by an Australian in the Cup series (previous was a 18th by Tony Spanos at Martinsville in 1987 apparently).
Now, I'll be the first to say not to expect a similar result from Marcos in next weekend's Cup race at Michigan since, despite Ambrose saying he doesn't want to be known just for his road racing expertise, he has to be realistic and knows that's when he's able to show off his talent, just like Robby Gordon. But he showed last weekend that sometimes you do get that fairytale ending and nice guys don't have to finish last.
Congratulations, Marcos. You've made Australia, and this Aussie in particular, proud, mate.
The final road course of the season...and what a send off! Wheel ####ing, tempers flaring, leaders spinning off...and that was just on the pace laps!
Ok, so maybe that's not quite right, but Watkins Glen saw a really hard fought race between two of the best road racers going around; Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon.
Tony looked to have the race in his pocket but wheel-hopped into turn 1 and rejoined outside the top ten. After storming his way up to second, he and Jeff then proceeded to trade laptimes until Jeff did the same thing and spun away any chance of winning his fifth race of the year and extending his points lead over Jimmie Johnson.
Either no one saw my comment on JJD's post or no one found it remotely amusing...too bad if you didn't since I'm going to put up what Tony and Zippy (should have) said on the radio after spinning in the 'Centurian Boats at the Glen' here anyway;
Tony - "Zippy, I think my outboard has a misfire!" Zippy - "Tony you doofus, you don't have an outboard!" Tony - "Oh, so you're saying it cut out completely?" Zippy - *hitting his head on the monitor* "Just shut up and drive, Tony." Tony - "Don't you mean row?" Zippy - "IT'S A CAR, NOT A BOAT!" Tony - "Oh...could've fooled me with the way this thing handles."
I am guessing that Jeff may have said something similar. As a result, Jimmie ended up pegging back six points on Jeff while Tony, due to winning for the third time in four races, closed to within seven of Jimmie. Carl Edwards threw away seven points on the final lap when he suffered a complete brain fade and flew off into the gravel when he was second but recovered to finish the race in eighth. Nothing else to be said on the Truex/Montoya/Harvick/Burton/McMurray thing since that topic has been pretty much thrashed to death this week so I'll just put up the points.
The moment 'Smoke' fans were praying for; Jeff spinning out of the lead
Again, only the top 8 finishers score any points (10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1) just like F1.
Tez's NASCAR Race Championship (TNRC) Standings - after round 22
(* denotes half points only awarded as race did not reach 75% completion)
So there we have it, the race for second has closed up a bit more and Tony might very well go into my revamped Chase format with a lead if he can score a couple more wins before Richmond. I'll run the standings both ways just to see how it would pan out...actually, I am still unsure over exactly what to do with that. I may yet just decide to do the Chase thing TNQC (no points this week due to yet another washout) instead, we shall see.
That's what it's all about on a road course, figuring out your fuel mileage and pitting at the right moment where you can make it to the end. However, it would seem that many people are frustrated with Infineon and Watkins Glen and feel they both should be booted from the NASCAR calender.
Why?
Due to the cars being pretty much equal to each other, that should leave the result in the hands of the driver...which generally only happens on the road courses.
Oval racing is all about setup; a wedge adjustment here, slight decrease in the tyre pressure there, that kind of thing. Very rarely does the final phase of the race come down to the guy sitting behind the wheel instead of how well the pitcrew have adjusted the car.
Road racing however, now that is a different beast altogether. It is far easier to see the drivers trying their butts off on a road course than on an oval since you can see them getting sideways and trying to outbrake the other guy.
You can argue that it's boring to watch...but so are oval races. Yes, it takes great skill to be able to run side by side for 500 miles like they do at Daytona and Talladega...but it can be as dull as watching grass grow in winter until there's a crash.
NASCAR (and their fans) claim they have some of the best drivers racing...so let them prove that by actually having tracks where it comes down to the guy sitting behind the wheel, not the one behind the monitor on the pitwall.
Now, let's get into the other issue that a few people have raised on here today; that crash.
I'm not the biggest fan of Juan Montoya since I grew tired of him during his last couple seasons in F1 but I don't get why people are slamming him for what happened today. He went right to defend his line and Martin Truex Jr tapped him which caused the whole thing. Juan did nothing wrong...Truex Jr did.
There, I've said it.
Truex Jr knew what Montoya was going to do since he started moving right really early down the front straight. Martin needed to swing back left (which he should be good at since they go left all the time on the ovals) and try down the outside. And before you pull the "there's no room on the outside" thing, watch the replay and you'll see that there's plenty of room between Martin and Jimmie Johnson and he had more than enough time to say "ok, Juan's blocking, I'll go left instead."
I understand that Kevin Harvick was upset at what happened...and I understand Juan's reaction when Kevin didn't listen to him. But to say that whole thing was caused by Juan is complete rubbish...it was all caused by Truex Jr not hooking left, simple as that. Had he done so, Juan would not have braked as late as he did and would not have taken out Harvick since he wouldn't have gotten tapped by Martin.
Road Racing 101 - if you get blocked, you go the other way. You don't bump the guy in front of you since chances are you'll wreck them and anyone else in front of that car making you look like a complete doofus on live television. NASCAR have to give drivers official approval to race on the ovals (as Marcos Ambrose knows since he sat out the first few races of the Truck series last year)...maybe they need to introduce the same thing for road courses.
Kevin and Juan will probably both get some form of penalty for the 'handbags at twenty paces' thing but Richard Childress really needs to smack Kevin around the ears for saying what he did (saw the replay yet still blamed Juan...must have been a different replay to the one I was watching).
As for the reaction of some the people on here...you should know better if you've followed the sport for as long as you claim. So your driver got taken out, big deal...this is NASCAR, not NAS-wah.
Road courses are here to stay...I just wish all the whinging about them would #### off.
Ok, as many people on here know, I tend to focus my NASCAR blogs on Marcos Ambrose, mainly since we're both Australians. Now, after hearing at the start of 2007 that Marcos would be making his Cup debut at Sonoma, I was rather excited. For you see, Marcos is a pretty handy road racer and the new car rather ####ily reminded me (and Forensic) of the V8 Supercars he raced down here.
So as you can imagine, I was rather miffed when I saw that Marcos' name wasn't on the list for Sonoma. Wood Brothers said they wanted him to focus on the Busch series and the logistics of getting him from Milwaukee to Napa Valley and back were somewhat difficult. Also, since Marcos was in the top ten in points, they didn't think it would be a good idea to split his focus that weekend and I understand that totally.
To Watkins Glen then...both series are racing there this weekend so it's the perfect time to chuck Marcos in a second car and see how he does. After all, he can only be on a massive high after his performance in Montreal a few days ago.
Now imagine my surprise when I see the preliminary Cup list and his name isn't on it.
Fair enough, it says it's only provisional...but come on, did Marcos have to win in Montreal to get a drive or something? If he wasn't so loyal to Wood Brothers for giving him a shot last year, I am betting there are a few other teams who would love to have him in their car this weekend.
I was really looking forward to seeing him give the new car his best shot...but now it looks like that will have to wait. And, unlike Marcos in his postrace interview, I will be mad (not as mad as my avatar though) if he isn't even going to be given a chance by his team.
See how mad my avatar is? Oh wait, wrong picture...um, never mind then
Yes, Bill Elliot is a great driver and highly respected within NASCAR circles, but give the best road racer you have in your stable a go...surely he proved that he can handle these cars on those types of tracks?
Someone tell me it's April 1 since this must be a prank.
Tez is a rare creature; an Australian who was living in New Zealand before moving to Canada. He's also a Civil Engineer who is hoping to spend his Monday to Friday sitting in front of a computer surfing the inter...uh, working hard for an Engineering Consultant or Contractor when he finds a job. His heart is torn between his two loves; F1 and NASCAR.
Due to his high interest in those, his blogs will likely focus on them with the occasional foray into sports that don't get much (if any) mention on this website. All blogs and/or comments will more than likely have his usual dollop of sarcasm and general Aussie spin on them.
Amazingly, he also managed to score 2 MiB nominations on consecutive days (August 5 & 6, 2007) after announcing he had been keeping track of them...he's considering hiding under his bed as a result.
