Marcos Ambrose maintains his points position after Texas
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Ambrose started 25th and rallied the No. 59 Kingsford Tailgate at Home Ford in the final 100 miles to give JTG Daugherty Racing some breathing room in the rankings.
From Staff Reports
FORT WORTH, TX -- Marcos Ambrose came to the Texas Motor Speedway last Saturday with a solid game plan to solidify is position in the NASCAR Nationwide Series point standings. A ninth-place finish in the O’Reilly Challenge accomplished that – and more.
Ambrose started 25th and rallied the No. 59 Kingsford Tailgate at Home Ford in the final 100 miles to give JTG Daugherty Racing some breathing room in the rankings.
“It was a good day for us,” Ambrose said. “We fought all day. We had a fast car in practice. We had to come back through the field. We just ran out of laps. We had the best the car was the last 30 or 40 laps of the race. The track was coming to us and the car was coming to us, so I’m happy with the result.”
Ambrose now has finished in the Top 20 in 19 of his last 20 starts. More important, he’s got a 116-point lead over 11th place and is only eight points from ninth place and 51 points from eighth.
“Our goal was to finish in the Top 10, but that doesn’t necessarily mean 10th,” said crew chief Gary Cogswell. “We’re going to make a run at eighth and ninth place in these last couple races. The race at Texas was a lot like our season – we started a little slow, but we really came on strong at the end.
“Our Kingsford Ford was really good at Texas. It’s a shame we had to spend the first 200 miles working our way through traffic. It’s not easy with the way these things handle, but Marcos did a good job. A few more laps, we might have made our way into the Top-Five.”
It would be easy for the team to be conservative in the final two races to protect their spot in the standings. But Ambrose believes the best defense is a good offense.
“We’ve cemented ourselves in the Top 10,” he said. “We got there by racing hard. We can’t change anything now. We’re going to Phoenix and Homestead with plans to run in the Top 10 and compete for the win. That strategy got us where we’re at; it will keep us there.”
Posted November 03, 2008 , 11:50 pm EST Last Updated November 04, 2008 , 11:00 pm EST
