Southern 500 Report

'THE TRACK TOO TOUGH TO TAME' GIVES AMBROSE AND HIS JTG DAUGHERTY TEAM ONE WILD NIGHT

DARLINGTON, SC — Problems early on in the Southern 500 relegated Marcos Ambrose and his No. 47 Little Debbie® backed Toyota Camry to a 33rd-place finish after starting 10th in the 367-lap event that had a record 17 cautions for 73 laps.

“I was mad at myself for 200 laps for hitting the wall pretty hard,” said Ambrose, whose car started off really loose at the beginning of the race and snapped out from under him on Lap 27. “Then later in the race, just before Lap 200, David Ragan got into us and that caused even more damage on top of what we already had. My team did a great job to keep that car running. They never gave up and because of that we were able to finish the race and pick up a few more spots in the finishing order. But, man was it a long night. They don’t call this place ‘Lady in Black’ for nothing.”

Within the first three laps of the race, Ambrose reported to crew chief Frank Kerr his car was "twitchy loose". It was evident that Ambrose had an ill-handling car as he slid nine positions to 19th before entering pit road under caution at Lap 22. The team pulled a spring rubber out, dropped the track bar one round and put on four fresh Goodyear tires.

“Pretty much all the drivers were saying that they were really loose,” Kerr said.

“The Little Debbie® backed Toyota needed wedge or something,” Ambrose said.

The 32-year-old Australian driver restarted in 26th-place on Lap 24 as Jimmie Johnson led the field down into Turn 1. Three laps later Ambrose’s car snapped loose and hit the wall. He plummeted to 39th as smoke was coming from the right rear. Fortunately the yellow flag waved at Lap 30. Ambrose was on pit road the next lap for the team to estimate the damage.

“The Little Debbie® backed Toyota was in bad shape after I hit the wall with it,” Ambrose said. “It was really wobbling all over the place. The toe was knocked out. It was steering to the right. The track bar was bent. The guys did what they could to make repairs.”

The JTG Daugherty Racing team did a solid job of making repairs in a hurry to keep the Little Debbie® backed Toyota on the lead lap. As the race returned to green flag racing, Ambrose was 36th on Lap 37.

“I told him to keep digging and do the best he could with what we had,” Kerr said.

Ambrose did his best with the badly damaged car, but leader Ryan Newman was reeling him in each lap. Finally, Newman made the pass to place the team one lap down on Lap 50.

The damage to the car was too much for Ambrose to keep it ahead of the field. 16 laps later Newman passed Ambrose a second time while he was running in 36th.

Because the car handled so poorly, Kerr instructed Ambrose to go to the garage so the team could work on it more.

“We wanted to make sure the car was stable enough for Marcos to drive it so he didn’t wreck,” Kerr said.

Ambrose pulled out of the garage on Lap 86 to return to the track and immediately radioed to Kerr that the car was really loose. He was back on pit road at Lap 102 under green and then again on Lap 120 under caution for more adjustments and repairs.

“We were really free,” Ambrose said. “I needed them to tighten me up and get it drivable.”

“We didn’t want to give up because we knew we could gain some more positions,” Kerr said. “I told him to keep going because you never know whose going to crash out. We had a long way to go in the race at that point.”

Ambrose restarted 37th on Lap 123.

“It was tight in the middle and snappy loose,” Ambrose said.

Any opportunity the team had, Ambrose pitted. Then on Lap 197, Ambrose’s problems were compounded by the No. 6 car of David Ragan hitting him. He headed back to pit road.

“David hit Marcos pretty good and we wanted to make sure nothing was going to fall off,” Kerr said. “I told Marcos it was like when it rains it pours.”

As the field returned to green flag racing at Lap 201, Ambrose exited pit road to return to the track. Ambrose immediately told Kerr that he had no steering and was heading back to the garage. The crew worked feverishly to make the car drivable. On Lap 224, Ambrose drove out of the garage a second time to return to the track.

“I couldn’t believe the car was still going,” said Ambrose, who completed 312 of 367 laps. “The team did an awesome job to keep me up to speed.”

“We didn’t want a DNF on his report card,” Kerr said. “We wanted to finish the race.”

The valiant effort by the JTG Daugherty Racing team helped Ambrose pick up a few more spots and finish 33rd to keep them within striking distance of the top 12 drivers in points and the coveted Chase to the Sprint Cup. Ambrose is now 140 points out of 12th-place. Contributed by Chip Warren, JTG Daugherty Racing

Southern 500 Results:
1. Mark Martin
2. Jimmie Johnson
3. Tony Stewart
4. Ryan Newman
5. Jeff Gordon
6. Martin Truex, Jr.
7. Brad Keselowski
8. Greg Biffle
9. Joey Logano
10. Matt Kenseth
33. Marcos Ambrose

2009 Point Standings:
1. Jimmie Johnson — 6248
2. Mark Martin — 6064
3. Jeff Gordon — 6056
4. Juan Montoya — 6009
5. Tony Stewart — 5969
6. Kurt Busch — 5936
7. Greg Biffle — 5908
8. Ryan Newman — 5846
9. Kasey Kahne — 5834
10. Carl Edwards — 5811
11. Denny Hamlin — 5800
12. Brian Vickers — 5692
18. M. Ambrose — 3519