Marcos Ambrose Shatters Watkins Glen Track Record

Marcos Ambrose has won the last two Sprint Cup races at Watkins Glen and he will start his run at a third consecutive victory from the pole with Michael Waltrip Racing’s Clint Bowyer 2nd. Marcos seems untouchable at this track and a pole to kick off his pursuit for his third win in as many years at this historic race track is very bad news for the competition. This was the second time NASCAR utilized group qualifying at the Sprint Cup level and it went very well only producing one incident which was Brian Keselowski’s spin early in the session.Jamie McMurray held the pole position for a bit before the final two groups took to the track. Clint Bowyer knocked him from the top spot but he was no match for the Aussie ace who took the pole with ease leaving the rest of the drivers in his group to battle for 2nd on back. Ambrose didn’t just post the fastest time though, he broke the track record that was set last year. This is the 12th track record to fall in 2013 which can be accredited to the introduction of these new Gen-6 cars.

There was also a couple of surprises towards the front of the field in the form of AJ Allmendinger and Michael McDowell who qualified 4th and 12th in cars that are usually run 20th or worse. Max Papis is the interim driver of the No.14 while Tony Stewart recovers after breaking his leg in a Sprint Car crash and the weekend has been a struggle for him so far. Just like when Vickers/Martin substituted for Hamlin earlier this year, it takes a while to get used to the car and how everything works within the team.

The Cheez-It 355 can be seen on ABC at 1pm est. Sunday. The full lineup can be seen below…