Ambrose Wins Third Straight Zippo 200

WATKINS GLEN, August 8, 2010: Marcos Ambrose won his third straight NASCAR Nationwide Series Zippo 200 and led the most laps (60) at Watkins Glen International Saturday afternoon in the No. 47 Kwik Fill Convenience Stores/Zippo Toyota fielded by JTG Daugherty Racing.

Ambrose scored his third career pole award and then went on to lead laps 1-18 and 41-82 to pick up another gold Zippo lighter and more hardware during his first NASCAR Nationwide Series event of the season.

“It’s just a huge win for us,” Ambrose said. “Frank Kerr (crew chief) has been so good for my career and I have to thank him so much for every opportunity he gets me to victory lane. Scott Zipadelli helped too this weekend and he’s awesome as well. What a great day for our guys. I’m saying goodbye to JTG Daugherty Racing at the end of the year and it’s just nice to get a win for them here today. I’m hoping I can do it in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race tomorrow, but this feels really sweet right now.”

At the drop of the Zippo 200 green flag, Ambrose led the field with ease as Joey Logano shadowed him closely. On lap 7, Ambrose made his first report to crew chief Frank Kerr that he was tight in Turn 2 and a bit loose in 10.

However, Ambrose maintained the lead and made his first pit stop of the 82-lap event at lap 17 for four fresh Goodyear tires. Back on track the Australian driver found himself in second place as Joey Logano was the new leader. A few laps later NASCAR displayed the caution flag for debris. Once the field restarted, a 10-car pileup on lap 24 forced NASCAR to red flag the event for approximately 25 minutes.

Once racing resumed, Logano held onto the lead until lap 26 when Kyle Busch snuck by him to go to the point. Ambrose fell back to third for a moment, but was right back to second place on lap 28 filling up Busch’s mirror.

“Man, Kyle (Busch) is so talented and I’m honored to be able to match him today and ultimately pull off a victory,” Ambrose said.

Finally on lap 40, Ambrose made his move to snatch the lead from Busch.

“Kyle’s hard to pass and whenever you’re going to do it you’ve got to do it in style,” Ambrose said. “I couldn’t pass him (Kyle Busch) on straight-line speed. He just had too much top end on us so I just waited for some lapped traffic to try to get around him and get some momentum on him and just out-foxed him there coming across the top of the hill. If I had to try to do that 100 times again I probably wouldn’t do it because it was just one of those moments that just came together. He got boxed on the outside. The lapped car didn’t quite know where to go and baulked his run and I just took advantage. It was pretty awesome.”

Ambrose’s final pit stop at lap 50 allowed the pit crew to change four tires again and add fuel to the car. The swift pit stop by the JTG Daugherty Racing team kept Ambrose out front.

Two more cautions at Lap 52 for oil on the track and 66 for debris, didn’t seem to faze Ambrose as he stayed ahead of the competition to pull into victory lane for a third time at Watkins Glen International. This win gives his team momentum going into Sunday’s Cup race.

“We had a great handling race car today,” Ambrose said. We took on the very best teams and we dominated and we’ve got a good understanding of what we need to do tomorrow. Converting that to a Cup car is a little more tricky with the way that the bump stops work and so forth. We’ll be thinking tonight about what we need for tomorrow. We didn’t quite qualify where we wanted to in the Cup Series car. Right now, I’m just going to enjoy the moment and enjoy today. It’s been a great rollercoaster ride for us. It’s the most satisfying win I’ve ever had. It’s just a great day for us.”

Ambrose’s team also earned the Mobil 1 Command Performance Driver of the Race, WIX Filters Lap Leader and Mahle Clevite Engine Builder of the Race awards to name a few.