Screw the Olympics. Aussies are better at NASCAR

OK, one Aussie is anyway. We may not have come away with the amount of gold medals that we thought we would, but as the athletes paraded around at the closing ceremony, Tasmanian Marcos Ambrose clinched his second career NASCAR Sprint Cup win in New York.

The two-time Aussie V8 Supercar champion who has been trying his luck in the big league since 2006 came home to win the Finger Lakes 355 in one of the most dramatic last laps we have seen in ages. Wrestling with Penske’s Brad Keselowski and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch, it took an oil slick and some amazing off road driving for Ambrose to steal the lead from the two drivers who are battling for this year’s championship.

Ambrose is a specialist road course driver so the Finger Lakes 355 at Watkins Glen, New York, was always going to present an opportunity for Ambrose to score some good points. It’s the fifth time Ambrose has won at Watkins Glen. Three times in the lower tiered NASCAR Nationwide Series and now twice in the Sprint Cup series. Ambrose won the same event last year to break through for his first Sprint Cup win.

He’s the only Australian to win at the top level of NASCAR. Aside from his five wins at Watkins Glen Ambrose has also triumphed at Montreal’s Gilles Villeneuve Circuit, another road course. A oval course win still alludes the Aussie.

Web: NASCAR (www.nascar.com)
Image: Wikimedia Commons

Damian Francis

Damian Francis has previously edited Australian T3 and F1 Racing magazine and wrote for GQ Australia and Men’s Health. Unlike Nick and Trev, he has no kids, no mortgage and no wife, but lives happily on Sydney’s North Shore with his girlfriend.