An incident in the early laps of the race has thwarted Team Australia driver Marcos Ambrose’s run in the Sharpie Mini 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee today.
Ambrose managed to soldier on with a stricken car to finish 28th and maintain seventh place in the NASCAR Busch Series standings.
Ambrose’s Aussie Vineyards-backed #59 Kingsford Charcoal Ford Fusion was hit when Jason Leffler spun on lap 36 of the 300-lap event. Ambrose’s crew took the damaged car back to the garage and made repairs, with Ambrose returning to the race 24 laps down.
With his car still in a damaged state the Australian driver circulated as best he could to collect points and creep up the order as other cars retired.
The strategy paid off with Ambrose 34th in the 43-car field at the halfway point of the race and 33rd with 100 laps remaining on lap 200.
By the end of the race Ambrose had risen to 28th position, finishing 29 laps down and crucially gaining 79 championship points towards his NASCAR Busch Series campaign.
Earlier in the day Ambrose qualified the Aussie Vineyards-backed #59 Kingsford Charcoal Ford Fusion in 36th position around the 0.533-mile (0.858km) speedway.
Carl Edwards won today’s Sharpie Mini 300 in front of an estimated crowd of 110,000 people ahead of Ford team-mate Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch.
Marcos Ambrose – Aussie Vineyards-backed #59 Kingsford Charcoal Ford Fusion
“You have days like this in motorsport, ” said Ambrose.
“We got hit early and it did plenty of damage to the car. We got it back together as much as we could and went back out there to circulate to get some points.
“Once we were back out there we just tried to stay out of everyone’s way and make sure the car got to the finish.
“It was a wild race today so we managed to climb up the order as people dropped out. We are still seventh in points so that’s something to take out of the weekend.
“After practice it was all looking good. It turned out to be a day to forget for the team but we will bounce back.
“It was really difficult after the incident because I was just trying to stay out of the way.
“You’re on the bottom groove and all the marbles and you’re clipping the apron all the time trying to keep out of the way and it was just a long, long day.
“We just kept ticking off those race laps and somehow finished with a 28th place.
“I was trying to do the right thing up there, but you can’t help it when someone just knocks you out. ”
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