Marcos Ambrose finds frustration in Bristol

Bristol was the site of heartbreak this past Sunday for NASCAR racer Marcos Ambrose. After a strong qualifying position of 9th, Ambrose was poised to start the season anew with a strong finish. But Sunday's race was a nightmare from start to finish for Ambrose.

Ambrose was running 10th on lap 43, when the field came in for the first pit stop under the caution flag. Ambrose was pinged for a speed violation as he was exiting pit road. He had to start the race at the back of the line.

The Australian came from behind to work his way through the field. His persistence and hard work paid off. He was in 4th place when the caution flag waved on lap 202. Then Lady Luck struck Ambrose again. He was penalized a second time for speeding on pit road and this time it was while entering pit road. “We were penalized twice by NASCAR for pit road penalties - - once for exiting and once for entering too fast,” Ambrose said. “We’re going to take a hard look at that and see what happened there.”

Again Ambrose fought back and by lap 317, he was in 10th place when he came in for a pit stop. He came out in 13th place but no pit road penalty this time. Then came the disaster that Marcos could not recover from. Greg Biffle and Mark Martin got into each other and as Mark was moving down the track, he was rear ended by Jeff Gordon. Ambrose could not check up in time and got into Gordon and he became the meat in a Gordon-Montoya sandwich. Montoya wrecked hard into Ambrose driver door panel.

The JTG-D team worked overtime to get Ambrose back into the race to avoid a DNF and Ambrose finished the race a disappointing 33rd. “My guys did a great job to get us back out on track,” Ambrose said.
Bristol was the site of heartbreak this past Sunday for NASCAR racer Marcos Ambrose. After a strong qualifying position of 9th, Ambrose was poised to start the season anew with a strong finish. But Sunday's race was a nightmare from start to finish for Ambrose.

Ambrose was running 10th on lap 43, when the field came in for the first pit stop under the caution flag. Ambrose was pinged for a speed violation as he was exiting pit road. He had to start the race at the back of the line.

The Australian came from behind to work his way through the field. His persistence and hard work paid off. He was in 4th place when the caution flag waved on lap 202. Then Lady Luck struck Ambrose again. He was penalized a second time for speeding on pit road and this time it was while entering pit road. “We were penalized twice by NASCAR for pit road penalties - - once for exiting and once for entering too fast,” Ambrose said. “We’re going to take a hard look at that and see what happened there.”

Again Ambrose fought back and by lap 317, he was in 10th place when he came in for a pit stop. He came out in 13th place but no pit road penalty this time. Then came the disaster that Marcos could not recover from. Greg Biffle and Mark Martin got into each other and as Mark was moving down the track, he was rear ended by Jeff Gordon. Ambrose could not check up in time and got into Gordon and he became the meat in a Gordon-Montoya sandwich. Montoya wrecked hard into Ambrose driver door panel.

The JTG-D team worked overtime to get Ambrose back into the race to avoid a DNF and Ambrose finished the race a disappointing 33rd. “My guys did a great job to get us back out on track,” Ambrose said.

“We were fortunate to even finish the race because we had so much damage,” Ambrose said. “We’ll put this one behind us and move on to Martinsville. We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. We’ve got to have better luck.” Here's hoping that Lady Luck smiles on Marcos Ambrose for the race next weekend in Martinsville.