From NASCAR.com
By Joe Menzer, NASCAR.COM
June 21, 2010
02:54 PM EDT
Sunday's late-race gaffe by Marcos Ambrose in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway was so stunning, it immediately begged the question.
Did it rank as one of the worst mistakes in the history of NASCAR's top national touring series?
It is important to point out that the winner of Sunday's event, the recipient of Ambrose's unforgivable stupidity, made his own costly late-race mistake just over one month earlier. Memories are short -- and it is important to point out that the winner of Sunday's event, the recipient of Ambrose's unforgivable stupidity, made his own costly late-race mistake just over one month earlier. That was when four-time defending Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson inexplicably got caught speeding on pit road while leading the Autism Speaks 400 at Dover. So, hey, this stuff happens even to the best of them.
But it's one thing when the four-time defending champ, already winner of three previous races this season and a total of 50 in his nine-year career, gets caught speeding on pit road. It's quite another when it's a guy like Ambrose, hungering for the first win of his fledgling Cup career now in its second full season.
Plus others have frequently been caught speeding on pit road -- including Juan Montoya, who cost himself a win at Indianapolis last season when he was guilty of the infraction on a late stop after earlier running away from the field on the track.
Those types of mistakes, while self-inflicted and every bit as painful, pale in comparison to Ambrose's apparent decision to attempt to save fuel when it might not even have been necessary. (His crew chief, Frank Kerr, insisted following the race that there was a need to save gas at the time -- but the No. 47 team apparently was worried needlessly about the possibility of multiple green-white-checkered finishes that never came).
Vegemite, anyone?
Anyone who has ever met Ambrose and spent even a little bit of time with him comes away with a warm feeling toward the friendly Australian.
Roughly 15 months ago, yours truly visited Ambrose in his hauler to talk about a variety of topics. Before long, Ambrose was discussing his love of Vegemite, the mysterious, dark brown gunk that Aussies spread on everything from English muffins in the morning to sandwiches at lunch to who knows what else at dinner.
Soon enough Ambrose whipped out a jar and pulled out a toaster, offering to give his surprised visitor a taste. As the driver continued to answer questions, he proceeded to slather butter and Vegemite on the toasted English muffin -- anxious to sell a little of his native culture to the ugly American.
It was a simple yet magnanimous gesture on Ambrose's part, immediately endearing him to someone who had, moments before, hardly known the guy.
That made watching Sunday's embarrassing and costly gaffe more difficult. Ambrose is one of the good guys in the garage, and he works hard at his craft. The No. 47 Toyota he drives for JTG/Daugherty Racing has been fast at most tracks this season, yet the team lacks the results to show for it because of other issues, some of the driver's own doing but most of them not.
Ambrose knew that the 1.99-mile road course at Sonoma offered one of his best chances to bag his first Sprint Cup win this season. He did everything he needed to do -- as did his team -- to get in position to accomplish it.
Then he blew it.
The good news
By now the details of how Ambrose flipped the kill switch on his car and stalled out going up the Turn 2 hill on Lap 104 of Sunday's race in the misguided attempt to save fuel have been ingrained in NASCAR racing lore. No one, Ambrose included, will soon be able to forget it.
Those who believe he should have been placed back in the lead after his car stopped on the track are sadly mistaken. While it could be argued that NASCAR sometimes has seemed to bend the rules one way or the other, depending on the situation, this one was crystal clear. The car in the lead during a caution period must maintain "reasonable speed" behind the pace car.
Maybe Greg Biffle did that at Kansas in 2007 and maybe he didn't, but his car never stopped moving. Maybe Dale Earnhardt Jr. did that in his last victory at Michigan two years ago and maybe he didn't, but his car never stopped moving. And in those cases, by definition of the rule, it was left up to NASCAR officials to determine what constituted "reasonable speed." They made their ruling and everyone else was left to live with it.
Ambrose's car ground to a halt and was passed by six other machines before he could get it re-fired. End of story. End of his chances to win. There can be no credible debate about it.
To Ambrose's credit, after spending some time to cool down afterward, he emerged from his hauler to at least spend a few minutes trying to explain himself to the media. Lesser men would have dodged the scene altogether.
Where he goes from here is up to him. This is the second road race he has choked away in two years, having had a Nationwide victory in the bag at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal one year ago until he botched the final turn and handed the win to Carl Edwards.
Those are the facts. But another fact is that there is one more road course remaining on the schedule this year, and it could be argued that no one has consistently driven better on them in the past two years than Ambrose. He also has shown improvement on NASCAR's other styles of tracks, even if, at times, his finishes haven't reflected it.
They say you learn from your mistakes. Ambrose needs to now trust that it is true.
The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.
