Australian NASCAR driver Marcos Ambrose was heading for his first win of the season and set to make NASCAR Sprint Cup history with a third successive victory on New York’s Watkins Glen International race track, when he shunted a barrier while leading – leaving victory to Kyle Busch.
After four years, Ambrose is still learning the ropes on the traditional oval NASCAR raceways, but when the racing moves to the Watkins Glen road circuit he is a far superior driver, as he displayed in his Ford Fusion NASCAR, taking pole position with a record time and then leading for 51 laps before misfortune overtook him.
With six laps of the 90 lap race to go Ambrose, in 12th position and his Ford struggling to make the finish, was nudged from behind by Max Papis’ Chevrolet and sent crashing into a wall. The infuriated Ambrose ripped off his steering wheel, climbed out of the car and then angrily threw his helmet at his Ford while Kyle Busch went on to win.
If Marcus Ambrose had won he would have joined Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin as the only NASCAR drivers to have won three consecutive times at Watkins Glen. The other Australian driver in the field, Owen Kelly, in his first NASCAR Sprint Cup race, finished a very creditable 24th.