NASCAR NATION -6-23

At the midway point of Toyota/ Save Mart 350 Sunday at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California, it appeared as though Marcos Ambrose, Martin Truex Jr., and Boris Said appeared poised to cruising to the victory. But when it was all said and done, it was the four-time defending champion celebrating.
Jimmie Johnson catapulted to his fourth victory of 2010 after a rare mistake by road-course expert Ambrose led to Johnson’s inheritance of the lead – and he never looked back, leading the final five laps easily for the victory. Johnson, who had never won at Infineon prior to Sunday’s victory, was very grateful for the victory.
“I feel bad for him [Ambrose],” Johnson said. “It was definitely a gift kind of handed to us. But I’d say the bottom line to it is I love road course racing. I always have. I grew up racing off-road trucks, made a name for myself in that style of racing. To come into the Cup Series and not have success early irritated me. That’s why today is so special to us, why it has meant so much.
The gift Johnson referred to was a strange mistake that took Ambrose from the lead back to seventh.
Ambrose, running in the top three for most of the day, was leading during a caution with six laps to go. Ambrose shut off his car to coast down one of the track’s many downhill slopes, a common procedure for many drivers while trying to conserve fuel.
But Ambrose struggled to get his No. 47 Toyota restarted, instead stalling on the track and allowing several cars to pass him under caution before finally getting his car restarted. He proceeded back to his position as the leader after starting his car, but was ordered by NASCAR to restart in seventh place after falling back six positions while idle. The move put Johnson in the lead, and Ambrose out of the picture.
The Australian said “I’m disappointed. It’s NASCAR’s house and I’ll always play by the rules. I don’t agree with it, I don’t like it and that’s only because I lost the race because of it. I had the motor turned off trying to save a bit of fuel and just had trouble getting it fired again. That’s it.”
Robby Gordon posted his highest finish of the season, placing his No. 7 Toyota in the second position. Series points leader Kevin Harvick maintained his lead with a third place finish. Polesitter and defending race winner Kasey Kahne finished fourth, and Jeff Gordon rounded out the top five. Ambrose was sixth.
Mayetta native Martin Truex Jr. started 10th in his No. 56 NAPA Toyota, and was running strongly within the top 10 for much of the first half of the race. He was running in the sixth position when he was spun around following contact with Jeff Gordon, dropping him back to the middle of the pack. He was then involved in a wreck with Juan Pablo Montoya and Sam Hornish Jr., forcing him to retire to the garage and post a 42nd place finish.
Following the incident, Truex was quick to show his frustration towards Gordon.
“I was five or six car lengths ahead of the No. 24 car [Gordon] going into turn 11, and for some reason, he just took me out,” said Truex after being released from the infield care center. “But that’s alright, we’ll get him next week. If these guys don’t want to have any respect for me, I won’t have any respect for them. I’ll get him at Loudon (New Hampshire).”
Gordon did apologize following the race, saying that he felt “Extremely bad for Truex,” and that he didn’t intentionally wreck him.
Nationwide Series: Carl Edwards passed road racing veteran Jacques Villeneuve with less than 10 laps to go and then stormed off to his first Nationwide Series race of 2010 at the first ever NASCAR Nationwide Series event at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
Coming Up: The Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series head to the New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire for a weekend of racing at the Magic Mile.
Bruce Knoll, 18, of Eldora, can be contacted by email at bknoll jr4cmcherald@yahoo.com
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