Ambrose 3-peats at Watkins Glen: The Nationwide Zippo 200 Review

I know that sometimes you see the winning car carry the race sponsor and your first response is, "RIGGED!"

Marcos Ambrose, driving for the final time in a JTG Daugherty Nationwide Car, was carrying the Zippo and Kwik-Fill colors.  And boy were they ugly.  Now, I don't really know what Kwik-Fill is but I feel like if I ever saw one I'd be hesitant to go in. 

The Zippo/Kwik Fill 47 Toyota was green with yellow flames - green and yellow being the Kwik Fill colors - but I don't think I'm alone here in wishing we would have seen a black and red flamed Zippo Toyota instead.  It wasn't the worst looking car in history, but it was probably top 20. 

Ambrose was going for his third straight Watkins Glen win.  It may not seem like much for a road course racer like Ambrose to win 3 straight road course races, but it should be noted that Ambrose has only won 3 Nationwide races in his career.  All of them at Watkins Glen.  Ambrose raced for two full seasons in Nationwide before moving to cup full time in 2009.  The worst that Ambrose has finished at the Glen was 13th.  That was the first ever race Ambrose ran at the Glen.  In three Cup series races at the Glen, Ambrose has finished 3rd in '08, 2nd in '09 and now a 3rd in '10.

Nationwide results and more after the JUMP!

The race was showcased by a huge pileup on lap 24.  Jason Leffler got loose, pancaked the wall and bounced right into Trevor Bayne and the rest of the feild bunched up.  In the end, countless (because I lost count) cars were involved including Justin Allgaier, Billy Johnson, Tony Raines, Brendon Gaughan, Victor Gonzalez, Alex Kennedy, Colin Braun, Boris Said but not really Kevin Harvick. 

Harvick managed to stop before hitting Gaughan and got to watch as Billy Johnson crushed Tony Raines into the air.  Harvick then put it in reverse and drove away.  It does look like Victor Gonzalez may have taken off his side mirror (if he had one), but nothing serious, if he was hit at all. 

We had a red flag for about a half hour, which is why I set my DVR to record at least an hour after the scheduled end time of a race (2 hours for cup races).

On thing is for sure, this race hurt Carl Edwards big time.  Keso was able to record his 16th top 5 of the year, while Edwards blew an engine and finished 33rd.  With less than 15 races to go, Keso is almost ready to put it on cruise control. 

With the #43 car withdrawing from the event, they lost even more ground on the top 30, and could shut down for the rest of the year. Here's the race for the top 30:

Next week we head to Brooklyn, Michigan for the Carfax 250.  If you can pull yourself away from Madden '11 long enough, tune in Saturday at 1pm to ESPN for the Nationwide Race from Michigan.  I'll try to put down Madden myself and get a preview up later in the week for the race.  Enjoy!