After a long wait and several heartbreaking setbacks, Marcos Ambrose is finally a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series winner.
Ambrose, the Australian regarded as NASCAR's top road racing talent, won Monday's delayed race at Watkins Glen, passing Brad Keselowski on the penultimate lap and dashing to the checkered flag as chaos ensued behind him.
Kyle Busch had the lead on a restart, but made a mistake and got too wide into the first corner. That allowed Keselowski to get by, and Ambrose then caught Keselowski.
When Ambrose reached Keselowski's rear bumper, Ambrose nudged him out of the way and went on to take the lead.
On the final lap, Boris Said got into the side of David Ragan, who hit a barrier at a bad angle and ricocheted back onto the track. He then hit David Reutimann, who got airborne and smashed the wall in a terrifying incident.
You can see that below (fast forwarded to the 4:15 mark):
The finish was shaping up to be a two-man duel between Busch and Ambrose, but Paul Menard suddenly blew a tire and hit the wall with five laps to go.
Suddenly, that set the stage for a green-white-checkered restart with the entire field bunched together.
It wasn't just Menard who had a problem with overheating brakes – and thus blown tires.
Kurt Busch nailed the wall and ended his day early, and Denny Hamlin followed with an even scarier head-on collision with the tire barrier when his brakes failed following a blown tire.
Here are the NASCAR Watkins Glen results from today:
- Marcos Ambrose
- Brad Keselowski
- Kyle Busch
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Joey Logano
- Kevin Harvick
- Juan Pablo Montoya
- AJ Allmendinger
- Jeff Burton
- Jimmie Johnson
- Clint Bowyer
- Carl Edwards
- Jeff Gordon
- Matt Kenseth
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Ryan Newman
- Jamie McMurray
- Brian Vickers
- Bobby Labonte
- Casey Mears
- Andy Lally
- Boris Said
- Regan Smith
- Robby Gordon
- Mark Martin
- Kasey Kahne
- Tony Stewart
- David Ragan
- David Reutimann
- Ron Fellows
- Greg Biffle
- Paul Menard
- David Gilliland
- Terry Labonte
- Andrew Ranger
- Denny Hamlin
- T.J. Bell
- Kurt Busch
- Scott Speed
- Joe Nemechek
- Michael McDowell
- JJ Yeley
- Mike Skinner