Ambrose wins at Watkins Glen

Marcos Ambrose held off Brad Keselowski and won Monday’s rain delayed Sprint Cup Series Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at the Glen at Watkins Glen International.

[media-credit name=”CIA Photo Inc” align=”alignright” width=”219″][/media-credit]“I’ve sacrificed so much to get here and to finally win and be here in Victory Lane in the Cup Series is a dream come true. I flew the kids home yesterday. It was the little one’s first day at school. I was desperate to be there for her and this kind of makes up for it. I’ve just got to thank the Richard Petty Motorsports team, Stanley, DeWalt, everybody involved.” Ambrose said.

Kyle Busch was leading on the final green-white-checkers restart, but teammate dove under Busch entering the first turn for the lead. Ambrose bumped Keselowski in the chicane and took the lead.

This was his first victory in 105 starts in NASCAR’s top series and Ford’s first victory on a road course since Geoff Bodine in 1996.

“It was just a really good Dodge Charger today. I’m really proud of my guys for giving me a fast Miller Lite Dodge Charger. I wanted to win, but if I’m going to lose on a road course to someone, Marcos Ambrose is the man.” Keselowski said.

Busch finished third, Martin Truex Jr. fourth and Joey Logano finished fifth.

The race ended under caution when David Reutimann and David Ragan crashed entering the second turn. Reutimann’s bounced hard off of the guardrail and slid upside down across the track.

Polesitter and Sonoma winner, Kurt Busch went for a spin in the inner loop on lap four. He finished 38th.

“I had a big problem getting into the braking zones today, the rear brakes locking up. I had to crank eight rounds of front brake in our Shell/Pennzoil Dodge just to survive. All that does is generate brake heat and I blew out the left-front tire. It was just a bummer of a day and not anything that we expected. It must have been something with the brake package. Whatever (Brad) Keselowski found at Road Atlanta, I had a problem with today.” Busch said.

On lap 67, Denny Hamlin brought out the third caution flag of the race when he slammed head-on into the tire barrier after loosing his brakes.

“I had no brakes,” Hamlin said. “I was trying to do everything I could. Just nothing you can do.”