Marcos Ambrose was the talk all around the garage at Infineon. Everyone was picking the Austrilian driver for Sunday’s race. Much the same way there was talk about Amrbose there was a never ending constant reminder from just about everyone with a microphone that four time champion Jimmie Johnson had never won at a road course.
Johnson finally broke though with his first win involving right handed turns thanks to a bone headed move by Ambrose under caution.
While under caution for reasons no one are sure of Ambrose shut off his engine in an apparent effort to conserve fuel. That is fine and dandy until Ambrose lost speed, came to a stop and was then passed by a handful of cars.
This set off an almost immediate fire storm on NASCAR’s rule book. And while the sport always seems to be tinkering with something that angers or confuses it’s fans this is something that had been in print for years. By failing to keep speed Ambrose had not only broke a simple rule he had thrown away a chance at his first career victory.
Ambrose restarted the race seventh and crossed the line sixth.
“I should have had the motor cranked up and it wouldn’t have ever been an issue,” Ambrose said after the race. “Terrible way to finish.”
Those simple remarks by Ambrose are all you need to know. Had Ambrose kept speed by keeping the engine on then he would have restarted in first and in all likely hood finished the race first.
Robby Gordon came home second followed by Kevin Harvick. Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon rounded out the top five.
For all the talk about how Johnson was no longer the dominating force he once was he has now picked up his fourth win of the season and moved into second place in the point standings with ten races remaining before the Chase starts.
