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Ambrose Rises To Tenth In NASCAR Busch Series Points With Solid Race In California |
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Sunday, 25 February 2007 |
Team Australia driver Marcos Ambrose has risen to tenth in the NASCAR Busch Series standings after finishing 25th in the Stater Bros 300 at California Speedway in Fontana, California today.
It was another solid finish for Ambrose in his second NASCAR Busch Series start, the Australian driving the Aussie Vineyards-backed #59 Kingsford Charcoal Ford Fusion to be the third highest finishing Raybestos Rookie of the Year contender in today’s 150-lap event.
The race was a gutsy performance for Ambrose and the #59 Wood
Brothers/JTG Racing crew as they worked hard all race to improve the
set-up of the team’s spare car after a qualifying crash put the main
car out of commission.
Ambrose crashed at the start of his qualifying run, which was held less
than four hours before the start of the race. Not only did this put
Ambrose in 41st and last position for the start of the race, it meant
that the #59 crew had to work hard to get the spare #59 Kingsoford
Charcoal Ford Fusion ready for the race.
From this point on it was always going to prove a tough event for
Ambrose, but he soldiered on despite having no track time in the spare
car over the weekend. With set-up critical at California Speedway,
Ambrose persevered with the car with the aim of collecting a finish and
some vital points.
Ambrose broke in to the top 30 on lap 60 of the 150-lap race, exiting
pit road in 27th after his second pit stop under the third caution
period of the day.
With 25 laps to go Ambrose remained in 27th and over the course of the
final laps Ambrose gained further positions to finish 25th, despite
battling a set-up that made the car a challenge, especially in the
middle part of the corners.
Matt Kenseth won today’s Stater Bros 300 in his Ford Fusion ahead of Casey Mears and Kyle Busch.
Ambrose makes his NASCAR road course debut next weekend in Mexico City
at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in the third race of the 2007
NASCAR Busch Series season.
Marcos Ambrose – Aussie Vineyards-backed #59 Kingsford Charcoal Ford Fusion
“I still don’t know what happened on the qualifying run,” said Ambrose.
”It was a bit of a mess and it really put us back. I have to thank the
team for what they were able to do in getting the car ready before the
race. They did a great job to get everything on the spare car ready.
“I hadn’t driven the spare so it was very hard to get out there with
the speeds these cars do and run with the frontrunners. Not having
driven it, the set-up was obviously not right. We worked away at it and
tried to tune it during the pit stops but it just didn’t work,
especially through the mid-corner.
“The qualifying thing put us in the spare car and there is only so much
you can tune it in the pit stops, so we were pretty much stuck with
what we had.
“We were able to get to the finish and get some points. It was a solid
finish and we are keeping the points ticking along and for these first
few races that is definitely the goal. Credit really has to go to the
team this weekend.
“This is probably the toughest track to get used to that I have raced
on in the past 12 months. You’ve got to have everything nailed with the
set-up and be on top of everything to get things going. But saying that
I’m quite confident that next time we come here we will have it worked
out.
“We can look ahead to Mexico and our first road course now but I think
the team should be pretty proud of what they did today. Unfortunately
after qualifying we were in a pretty tough situation but they did
everything they could, got me back out there and worked really hard
during the race.”
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