Notes: Edwards teaching, learning from young 'mate (cont'd)

Ambrose steps up
Tasmanian road-race ace Marcos Ambrose continued his string of never being out of the top five in either practice or qualifying when he earned the fourth starting spot in his No. 59 JTG Racing Ford.

"Yeah, I think we will have a lot of long runs because the race will settle down and everyone is just trying to look out for their gear [but] there will be a cluster of cautions, that's historically how this race is run," Ambrose said. "It's nice to be on top of the charts all weekend, it's a nice gain for us.

"I feel like we've really improved our road-course program [because] we were faster here with this car with 100 less horsepower than what we had last year. We've made huge gains on the car and we're really pleased with it."

Busch resigned
Kyle Busch's No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was first and fourth in Friday's practices, but the Las Vegas pilot said a lack of tire pressure hurt his grip level during qualifying, where he was sixth.

As much as he has expressed dislike for the new Sprint Cup chassis, Busch also made a face when asked about racing the reduced-horsepower Nationwide cars at Mexico City.

"You can't drive these things anywhere we go," Busch said. "It is what it is though, and we'll make due with what we've got. Everybody is the same. Obviously I think I've been pretty good with it in being able to run up front, win races and contend for wins in every single race we've been to.

"To me, I'm just not a very big fan of it because you reduce horsepower here and then you get to the Cup Series and you've got twice as much horsepower. It's kind of a non-win situation."

Would you buy a used car ... ?
ESPN commentator Rusty Wallace stopped long enough Saturday morning to tell a funny story about the pair of TW Motorsports cars, Nos. 86 and 84 Dodges, in which Mexican drivers Antonio Perez and Jose Luis Ramirez qualified 10th and 29th, respectively.

In doing research for the qualifying broadcast, Wallace said he asked a Chip Ganassi Racing crewman if the cars were ex-Ganassi pieces, and he was told they weren't -- they had formerly belonged to Wallace's own Nationwide team.

"I looked under the hood, and sure enough, there was a No. 66," Wallace said of the number carried by his son Steve's Dodge. "I knew we had sold some cars, but I didn't know who'd bought them."