|
Ambrose Qualifies 29th for Texas Busch Race |
|
|
|
|
Tuesday, 17 April 2007 |
Team Australia’s Marcos Ambrose will start the O’Reilly 300 from 29th position after a day of steady improvement at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas today.
Ambrose qualified the Aussie Vineyards-backed #59 Kingsford Charcoal Ford Fusion as the fourth best rookie on the opening day of proceedings at the 1.5-mile speedway.
Earlier in the day the two-time Australian V8 Supercar Champion was 35th in opening practice, fourth in Rookie Practice and 31st in final practice.
Ambrose achieved a top 10 finish at Texas Motor Speedway last November
in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and has impressive form on
1.5-mile ovals in his short NASCAR career.
Today saw a lot of effort put into improving the speed of the car, with
gains made towards the end of the day, giving Ambrose and the team
confidence heading into Saturday’s O’Reilly 300 as the Australian aims
to maintain his lead in the Raybestos Rookie of the Year standings and
his sixth position in the NASCAR Busch Series points, a position that
has Ambrose as the leading non-Nextel Cup driver in the series
standings.
Young Ford driver David Ragan captured pole for the O’Reilly 300 ahead
of his team-mate and series leader Carl Edwards, with Kyle Busch in
third.
Marcos Ambrose – Aussie Vineyards-backed #59 Kingsford Charcoal Ford Fusion
“It wasn’t the best day for us today but we worked hard to get things moving in the right direction,” said Ambrose
“We probably got on top of all our problems with roughly 10 minutes to
go in the final practice session, which put us behind things a bit for
qualifying.
“It was a long day, but you are always going to have those at some point.
“We are now competitive in that we are in the pack and have qualified
in the mix there. We are just chasing that extra couple of tenths of a
second now so that we can be right up the front for the race.
“Anything can happen in a NASCAR race. Strategy, drafting, pit stops,
you name it, so we will be thinking about things tonight and looking at
moving forwards in the race come Saturday.”
|
