Motor Racing Digest

 

Posted by: Dave Thompson, follow @phillyfan17

August 12, 2012

In one of the most exciting, side-by-side racing of the season, Marcos Ambrose came out on top after a clean, physical battle with Brad Keselowski on the final lap to win the Finger Lakes 355 at Watkins Glen International.

The victory for Ambrose was his second consecutive win at Watkins Glen and the second win of his career.

Kyle Busch was the race leader when the white flag came out, but Keselowski closed on Busch quickly and made contact on the No. 18′s right-rear, spinning him out.

With Busch now out of contention for the win (finished 7th), a classic battle between Keselowski and Ambrose would end with Ambrose in Victory Lane.  Keselowski and Ambrose made contact several times prior to entering the final turn with each pushing their cars to the limit.  They continued side-by-side into the final turn, but Ambrose managed to hold off Keselowski for the win.

Jimmie Johnson, Clint Bowyer and Sam Hornish Jr. rounded out the top-five.

After the race, Keselowski stated that he did not intentional wreck the race leader (Busch), but instead thought the No. 18 had been leaking oil creating a slick race surface thus causing the contact.

“There is nothing I could do.” said Keselowski.  “There was one big giant oil slick under his car.”

“It was just really good, hard racing. Beating and banging.  That’s the way racing should be,” Keselowski said.

There was plenty of intrigue early in the race with a number of drivers battling mechanical failures, blown tires, etc.  Brian Vickers was the first victim of the race when his No. 55 blew an engine before completing the first lap.

The harsh corning and high speeds (for a road-course) of Watkins Glen started to take its toll on the cars just 30 laps into the race.  Jamie McMurray brought out the first caution of the afternoon on lap 26 when he blew a front tire and slammed into the guard rail causing heavy damage to the front-end.  While under caution, Kurt Busch had a left-rear tire fly off his No. 51 Chevrolet.

Joey Logano was forced to the garage when his No. 20 Home Depot Toyota suffered a broken shock mount.  Shortly after Logano’s problem, pole-sitter Juan Pablo Montoya complained of steering problems and made his way to the garage for repairs.  The team later reported a broken lower-control arm and was unable to return to the race.  Montoya finished a disappointing 33rd.

“I did think we had a car to win today,” said Montoya.  “It was looking really good and everything was going according to plan, and then I hit a curb and all of a sudden it wouldn’t turn.”

Denny Hamlin dropped to 10th in the point standings after his No. 11 FedEx Toyota blew an engine.  Hamlin finished 34th and now has recorded six consecutive road-course races outside the top-30.

The win now puts Ambrose’s name in the wildcard pool for the Chase.  Kasey Kahne, with two wins, still holds the first wildcard spot despite his 13th place finish.  Jeff Gordon had held the second wildcard spot, but after a poor outing on Sunday (finished 21st) he relinquished that spot to Ryan Newman (finished 11th).

With Johnson’s third place finish and teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. finishing a disappointing 28th, Johnson becomes the new points leader.

Three drivers quietly ran an impressive race today and needed to be mentioned.  Regan Smith finished in ninth place for the second consecutive week.  Also, Casey Mears finished 16th while Scott Speed finished a season-best 17th.

Results of the Finger Lakes 355 at Watkins Glen:

Fin	Str	Car	Driver	Team	Laps	Pts	Bpts	Status	TLd	LLd
1	5	9	Marcos Ambrose	Stanley Ford	90	47	4	RUNNING	2	8
2	4	2	Brad Keselowski	Miller Lite Dodge	90	43	1	RUNNING	3	37
3	3	48	Jimmie Johnson	Lowe’s Cortez Silver Chevrolet	90	41		RUNNING
4	8	15	Clint Bowyer	5-hour Energy Toyota	90	40		RUNNING
5	17	22	Sam Hornish Jr.(i)	Shell Pennzoil Dodge	90	0		RUNNING
6	15	16	Greg Biffle	3M Ford	90	38		RUNNING
7	2	18	Kyle Busch	M&M’s Toyota	90	39	2	RUNNING	3	43
8	24	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford EcoBoost Ford	90	36		RUNNING
9	13	78	Regan Smith	Furniture Row/Farm American Chevrolet	90	35		RUNNING
10	9	56	Martin Truex Jr.	NAPA Auto Parts Toyota	90	34		RUNNING
11	6	39	Ryan Newman	U.S. ARMY Chevrolet	90	33		RUNNING
12	22	27	Paul Menard	Menards/Rheem Chevrolet	90	32		RUNNING
13	20	5	Kasey Kahne	Farmers Insurance Chevrolet	90	31		RUNNING
14	18	99	Carl Edwards	Fastenal Ford	90	31	1	RUNNING	1	1
15	19	29	Kevin Harvick	Budweiser Chevrolet	90	29		RUNNING
16	30	13	Casey Mears	GEICO Ford	90	28		RUNNING
17	21	95	Scott Speed	TWD Ford	90	27		RUNNING
18	29	43	Aric Almirola	Smithfield Ford	90	26		RUNNING
19	7	14	Tony Stewart	Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet	90	25		RUNNING
20	34	38	David Gilliland	Mod Space Ford	90	24		RUNNING
21	12	24	Jeff Gordon	Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet	90	23		RUNNING
22	32	34	David Ragan	Scorpion Coatings/Al’s Liners Ford	90	22		RUNNING
23	35	83	Landon Cassill	Burger King/Dr. Pepper Toyota	90	21		RUNNING
24	42	93	Travis Kvapil	Burger King/Dr. Pepper Toyota	90	20		RUNNING
25	25	32	Boris Said	Hendrickcars.com Ford	90	19		RUNNING
26	39	33	Stephen Leicht #	LittleJoesAuto.com Chevrolet	90	18		RUNNING
27	26	47	Bobby Labonte	Miller Welders/Freightliner Toyota	90	17		RUNNING
28	16	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	National Guard/Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet	89	16		RUNNING
29	36	87	Joe Nemechek(i)	Genny Light/AM/FM Energy Toyota	88	0		RUNNING
30	28	31	Jeff Burton	Caterpillar Chevrolet	84	14		RUNNING
31	27	51	Kurt Busch	Phoenix Construction Services Inc. Chevrolet	81	13		RUNNING
32	14	20	Joey Logano	The Home Depot Toyota	71	12		RUNNING
33	1	42	Juan Pablo Montoya	Target Chevrolet	63	12	1	Accident	1	1
34	23	11	Denny Hamlin	FedEx Freight Toyota	57	10		Engine
35	41	49	Jason Leffler(i)	America Israel Racing Toyota	42	0		Engine
36	31	36	Dave Blaney	Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet	41	8		Suspension
37	11	98	Michael McDowell	TRAQM Ford	30	7		Rear Gear
38	38	26	Josh Wise #	MDS Transport Ford	25	6		Electrical
39	10	1	Jamie McMurray	McDonald’s Chevrolet	24	5		Accident
40	37	10	JJ Yeley	Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet	15	4		Brakes
41	40	19	Chris Cook	Plinker Tactical Toyota	5	3		Brakes
42	43	30	Patrick Long	Inception Motorsports Toyota	2	2		Brakes
43	33	55	Brian Vickers	MyClassicGarage.com Toyota	0	1		Engine