Marcos Ambrose notches Watkins Glen repeat in wild finish
Aug. 12, 2012 (EDITORS: Adds results, writethru)
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
WATKINS
GLEN, N.Y. -- On a track too greasy to provide traction, Marcos Ambrose
surged from third to first on the final lap of Sunday's Finger Lakes
355 at Watkins Glen International
and won the race in a slugfest with runner-up Brad Keselowski.
Keselowski
had grabbed the lead in Turn 2 of the final circuit at the 2.45-mile
road course, after he knocked Kyle Busch's No. 18 Toyota for a loop,
with both cars sliding through
a patch of oil on the asphalt.
Ambrose,
who scored the second win of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career and
his second straight at the Glen, caught Keselowski moments later, and
the two drivers battled side-by-side
through the grass at the inner loop and through Turn 5 and beyond.
Ambrose's
No. 9 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford finally cleared Keselowski's No. 2
Dodge in the last corner as Keselowski slipped in oil to the outside.
Ambrose got to the finish
line .571 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.
Jimmie
Johnson finished third and took over the series lead by one point over
Greg Biffle, who wound up sixth. Clint Bowyer was fourth, followed by
Sam Hornish Jr., Biffle and
Busch.
"It
was just absolutely crazy at the end," Ambrose said. "I shot back up on
the inside of Brad (in Turn 7) and put him on the oil, and we snapped
through for the win.
"A
big shout-out to NASCAR. A lot of guys are going to say, 'Should they
have thrown a caution, or should they not?' but no one wants to see
these races end under caution or bunched
back up in these two-by-twos (double-file restarts), making a random
finish. We had the three fastest cars duking it out for the win. That's
the way it should be, and I think they did the right call."
Solidly
in the Chase for the Sprint Cup with three victories and the
fifth-place spot in the Cup standings, Keselowski enjoyed the quality of
racing over the final lap, even though
he came out on the short end.
"It
just came down to who was going to slip up last, and I did, and he got
by me and won the race," Keselowski said. "But a good show -- good
beating and banging, and that's the
way racing's supposed to be.
"Just
real proud of that race, proud that there is a class-act guy like
Marcos that can race that way without losing his cool and intentionally
wrecking somebody. That's really
cool."
Opinion
was divided on whether the race should have continued with oil on the
track, a condition several drivers attributed to the No. 47 Toyota of
Bobby Labonte. The oil was
particularly insidious because it was difficult to see.
"Those
last two laps were just out of control with the oil down," Johnson
said. "You're studying the road, trying to see if you can see an oil
trail, and there really wasn't a
large visible one to dodge. But you could feel the oil on your tires,
and slipping and sliding, and then guys are spinning all over.
"It was chaos, but I'm glad we got back to the finish line."
Tony
Stewart finished 19th, on the bottom end of a roller-coaster day.
Starting from the rear of the field for dragging a gas can from his pits
under caution on Lap 27, Stewart
charged toward the front and was running second to Keselowski when he
spun in Turn 7 on Lap 72 and backed his No. 14 Chevy into the guardrail.
That
left Keselowski and Ambrose to restart 1-2 on Lap 75 in the 90-lap
race, but before the two front-row cars cleared the first corner, Busch
took them three-wide to the inside
and grabbed the lead. After a protracted battle with Keselowski,
Ambrose took over the second position on Lap 81 but couldn't gain ground
on the race winner.
Keselowski retook the second position in Turn 5 on Lap 89 -- and then the fireworks started.
Notes:
Johnson leads Biffle by one point and eighth-place finisher Matt
Kenseth by two. . . . A late spin dropped Dale Earnhardt Jr. to 28th at
the finish and cost him the points
lead. He's now fourth, 17 points behind Johnson. . . . Jeff Gordon spun
in oil on the final lap and came home 21st, surrendering the second
provisional Chase wild card spot to Ryan Newman, who ran 11th.
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