Marcos Ambrose Robbed in Canada
For the second consecutive year Australian Marcos Ambrose has dominated the Montreal NASCAR round only to be robbed of victory, finishing third in Canada.
Last year it was Robby Gordon who robbed Ambrose of his first NASCAR victory after a crash but this time it was poor weather and a pit lane speeding violation which cost the Australian his first trip to victory lane.
The NAPA Auto Parts 200 race was won by Ron Fellows, with fellow Canadian Patrick Carpentier second.
“We’ve dominated this race twice now and not closed the deal,” said Ambrose.
“I’m bitterly disappointed and I feel a little robbed.”
Ambrose led for 27 laps and was clearly the fastest car in the race, but when the race was red flagged and then called with 26 laps remaining he was in third position behind two cars that still needed to pit again if the race ran to full distance.
The 31-year-old qualified in third position, but was into second place on lap two as he passed Max Papis entering the hairpin.
In a moment of NASCAR history, on lap eight NASCAR officials red flagged the race so all teams could change to wet weather tyres, fit windscreen wipers and connect rear rain lights, the first time this has ever occurred in a NASCAR championship division.
After several laps behind the pace car the race resumed on lap 14 and Ambrose immediately passed Scott Pruett to take the lead.
Even an off-track excursion on lap 38 didn’t cost him the lead, although it was reduced from 4.5 seconds to less than a second from Jacques Villeneuve.
A lap later it was back out to 3.8 seconds.
On lap 41, just over half-race distance, Ambrose made his one and only scheduled pit stop, but was deemed to have exceeded the pit lane speed limit, accelerating too early at pit exit, and was forced to perform a drive-through penalty two laps later.
He moved to third position but the race was called off before he could catch the local duo.
“If I did speed in pit lane, I just couldn’t see a thing there so when I saw the flashing lights at the end of pit lane I just went,” he said.
Despite the bitter disappointment for both Ambrose and his JTG Daugherty Racing team, the podium finish lifted him to 12th in the points standings of the NASCAR Nationwide Series after 23 of 35 races.
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