AMBROSE COLLECTED IN THE BIG ONE AT TALLADEGA AND FINISHES 34TH
Marcos Ambrose was relieved Ryan Newman was unharmed and released from
the Talladega Superspeedway infield care center after a horrifying
accident Sunday afternoon. As Ambrose was lined up behind Newman and
Newman behind his team owner Tony Stewart, cars ahead of them appeared to
slow causing a chain reaction with Newman flipping upside down as the end
result. Newman landed on Kevin Harvick's car before resting in the
grass on the backstretch on Lap 183. Ambrose was thankful everyone was
safe and soldiered on to finish in 34th-place after another multi-car
crash occurred during the midst of a green-white-checker finish. Jamie
McMurray won the event.
"I'm just thankful that Ryan is okay and that's all that
matters," Ambrose said. "Cars in front of me checked up and I got
hit from behind. I don't know what started it all -- don't
know what caused it. I'm just glad everyone was alright. That's all
that matters."
Ambrose started the race from the 17th spot due to NASCAR setting the
field by the owner points standings because of inclement weather on
Saturday. When the scheduled 188-lap race got underway, Ambrose made his
way to the top 10 by Lap 21 and he was running fifth two laps later. As
everyone lined up single file, Ambrose held on to his fifth spot until
pitting under green for four tires at Lap 42. When the No. 2 car of Kurt
Busch wrecked on Lap 49, Ambrose and the No. 83 car of Brian Vickers made
contact causing damage to the right front fender of the Kingsford
Charcoal Toyota.
Kerr called Ambrose to pit road three laps later when pit road opened.
The crew assessed the damage, made repairs, changed four tires and made a
chassis adjustment. On Lap 55, the field returned to green flag racing
and Ambrose was 19th. He reentered the top 10 six laps later as the field
lined up nose to tail again. The damage to his front fender caused the
car to be tighter as he still held on to the sixth-place spot on Lap 80.
Ten laps later Ambrose sustained more damage this time to the left rear.
Ambrose still maintained his stride and as green flag pit stops started,
the Australian driver led lap 98 and 99 before heading to pit road for
four tires and the pit crew to push the left rear fender back in. He
returned to the track in 29th place.
When the next yellow flag waved for debris, the pit crew took the
opportunity to work on the fender again. Ambrose restarted 30th on Lap
107 as Denny Hamlin led the field into Turn 1. On Lap 129 while Jeff
Gordon was now in the lead, Ambrose was back in the top-10. Shuffled back
to 18th on Lap 136, Denny Hamlin brought out the next caution as his No.
11 car's engine expired. Ambrose came down pit road for right side
tires and an air pressure adjustment on Lap 140. Back to racing on Lap
143, Ambrose made his move and shot up to third place on Lap 150. Two
laps later, Jamie McMurray was in the lead, Juan Pablo Montoya was in
second, Ambrose in third and David Stremme in fourth. Stremme lined up
behind Ambrose and pushed him to the front to lead another lap at Lap
153. The next lap Ambrose was fifth where he stayed for the next ten
laps. Ambrose was then shuffled out of line back to 29th.
While running just outside the top-20 at Lap 183, the big one happened.
Newman flipped upside down after entangling with teammate Stewart and
Ambrose as cars ahead of them checked up. The event was red flag for
safety crew workers to turn Newman's car over and cut the top off for
him to climb out. When the red flag was lifted, Ambrose limped to pit
road for the crew to repair the car for him to finish the race.
With the competitors facing one attempt at a green-white-checker finish,
McMurray led the field to green on Lap 189. The yellow flag waved
immediately as several drivers like David Reutimann, Casey Mears, Martin
Truex Jr., Kurt Busch, Jeff Gordon, Scott Speed, Brad Keselowski and
others were involved in another big wreck. Jamie McMurray won under
caution after the second multi-car wreck in the closing laps ended the
race.
-credit: jtgr
