The rain held off and 85,000 race fans were treated to an exciting race today at Watkins Glen International. At the start, it looked as if NASCAR was trying to fit a square die in a round hole, but the showers held and all of the scheduled 90 laps (92 actually) were completed today at The Glen. All this action coming today after yesterday’s weather forced a Monday race for the second time in three years.
[media-credit name=”Ed Coombs” align=”alignright” width=”239″]
[/media-credit]The Tasmanian native surged to his first NASCAR Sprint Cup series victory in dramatic fashion, surviving a wild Green-White-Checkered finish that will go down as one of the most epic two laps in The Glen’s storied history. For a second race in a row (the other coming in Saturday’s Zippo 200) the driver who led the most laps at The Glen would not come home with the race win.
Crew Chief Todd Parrott proved his strategy for today’s race would be relatively conservative in comparison to other teams when he called Marcos Ambrose in for his first of three pit stops on the day coming at lap 17. Others like the No. 18 team of Kyle Busch, the No. 24 of Jeff Gordon, and the No. 2 of Brad Keselowski tried to stretch their fuel mileage in exchange for improved track position.
There were really two ‘groups’ of cars today, those going conservatively and those trying to squeeze every drop of fuel from their cars in an effort to come to pit road just twice rather than three times.
The caution flag waived just 5 times today at Watkins Glen International, four of which were created by rather violent crashes across various points on the 2.45 mile road course.
The first caution caused by contact came past the half-way point in the race involving the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger on lap 50 when Kurt Busch’s car blew a left front tire sending him into the outside tire barrier in turn number 5.
Kurt Busch explained the incident after climbing from his wrecked car “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.” This marked Kurt Busch’s first DNF dating back to Michigan in August of 2010.
Kyle Busch was shown as the race leader following the caution lasting for three laps, but would lose the point to limping Brad Keselowski just 5 laps after the restart.
The second bad accident came on lap 67 when Denny Hamlin went for a ride off of the 90 degree turn number 1 at Watkins Glen International. The replay showed Hamlin’s car with the front brakes completely locked up with the rear wheels still going forward, and eventually plowing the wall in the first turn causing the wall to buckle upwards of 15 inches. The Toyota driver would later explain that something felt like it had broke in the front end causing him to drive straight through the hard right hander.
Eventual race winner, Marcos Ambrose along with Juan Montoya had pitted just one lap prior to the caution moving them into 4th and 5th respectively behind leader Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, and Martin Truex Jr. when the green flag came back out on lap 69.
Marcos Ambrose wasted no time after the third restart in his effort to drive to the front, zipping past Truex on lap 72 for third, and past Keselowski for second on lap 76. Ambrose whittled away at Kyle Busch’s 2.5-second lead throughout the next few laps, forcing Busch to burn more fuel to stay at the point.
Crew Chief for the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Dave Rogers, was asked on lap 83 if the No. 18 had enough fuel to make the 30 laps he needed to take the checkered and responded “Oh, that’s going to be close, I’m more worried about the No. 9 (Ambrose) right now.”
Dave Rogers’ prayers for a caution were answered when the second tire issue of the day caused the No. 27 of Paul Menard to smash the wall exiting the top of the esses. Menard’s car leaked fluid all the way around, almost to the entrance of turn number 10, forcing an imminent Green-White-Checkered finish.
Under caution, the leader Kyle Busch putted around the track, shutting down his engine several times in an effort to conserve fuel for the two lap dash that would make up the finish of the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen. Ambrose had 4 laps more fuel than Busch, so the No. 18 knew Ambrose would be charging hard on the final restart to overtake him.
The stage was set for the final restart with Kyle Busch in the lead, Ambrose starting to his left in second, Brad Keselowski starting inside row 2, Martin Truex Jr. in fourth, and Juan Montoya in fifth.
The race would go green for the final time on lap 91, with Kyle Busch hammering down towards the hard right hand turn number 1. Marcos Ambrose faltered on the restart, spinning his tires just before the start/finish line, giving room for Brad Keselowski and Truex to become a threat in the race. Busch drove his Toyota Camry too hard into turn 1, going sideways at the exit, giving way for Keselowski to sneak by on the inside.
Kyle Busch had this to say about his slip up in turn 1 “Just knew exactly what not to do and did it anyway. Just got in there and didn’t think I got in there too fast, but the car just didn’t slow down the way I needed it to and then it didn’t turn the way I needed it to. Saw sprinkles on the windshield, but everybody else made it fine through there. I just screwed up.”
Keselowski maintained the lead all the way up the esses, down the backstretch, and through the bus stop chicane. Ambrose would make his move on the Blue Deuce in the carousel turn, sneaking past Keselowski on his right. Once Ambrose got to the point halfway through lap 91, there was no turning back. He was absolutely flawless for the next lap through the 11 turns that make up the short course at WGI.
The final caution would come on lap 92, ending the race and putting Marcos Ambrose in Victory Lane for the first time as a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver. Heavy contact between the No. 6 of David Ragan and No. 00 of David Reutimann caused the caution to fly just as the field made their way through the first part of the esses in turn number 2. The crash was the most vicious one of the day, leaving Reutimann on his roof and Ragan with safety concerns about the track at Watkins Glen.
“That was a hard hit. I looked down at my feet and my pedals and my leg rests were all pushed over. It’s a shame that a race track we go to in 2011 doesn’t have a better wall design all the way around the race track, so hopefully they’ll look at that. I’ve been to some dirt tracks that have better walls than that. It was a hard hit, but our cars are safe.”
Said David Ragan, following his trip to the Infield Care Center.
Race winner Marcos Ambrose has no concerns with the safety at Watkins Glen “The track itself is a first-class facility. It’s a great race track. I think they’ve done an awesome job in some of the safety features they’ve already implemented around this place. I don’t drive around this place looking at any one spot saying, ‘Ooooh, that looks nasty to me.’ I think they’ve done great with what they’ve got. If you don’t have a guard rail off of turn two, you end up going down a bank, so that’s not good either. I think the track itself is fine, I think we just have to keep working on safety…But I think the track is a classic road racing circuit. You don’t want to make it too sterile. You’ve got to have bumps and lumps and change of camber and roughness and all that kind of stuff that makes it what it is.”
Ambrose’s win today marks the 5th different First-Time Winner in the Sprint Cup Series this year, and it’s the first win for Ford at Watkins Glen since Geoff Bodine’s win at The Glen in 1996.
Marcos elaborated on his win in Victory Lane just before 1PM today “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. Mrs. Petty is not doing so well at home. We wish her the best. This win is for her and the whole Petty family. Richard and everyone else who gave me the chance, thank you very much. Winning in the Cup Series for Stanley is just an incredible feeling and I’m very, very proud.”
The rest of the top 5:
battered Brad Kesolowski – 2nd
3rd-Kyle Busch
4th-Martin Truex Jr.
5th-Joey Logano
Kyle Busch leaves Watkins Glen tied for the points lead after a 12th place finish from Carl Edwards. Jimmie Johnson dropped one spot to 3rd following his 10th place finish at The Glen.
