Ambrose has career finish at Mexico City, but at a cost (cont'd)

Said was plainly incensed during an ESPN television interview.

"My team Ford Fusion driver Marcos Ambrose just cheap-shotted me and took me out," Said said. "He hooked my left-rear in Turn 1; he had me sideways for a while and then just turned me around.

"I'm not going to cry about it, but I'm going to go apologize to his crew chief because it's going to cost him a car."

Said did just that, walking the length of pit road to speak to Ambrose's crew chief Gary Cogswell -- a conversation in which Cogswell appeared to be conciliatory, but Said ended by jabbing a finger twice into Cogswell's chest.

"We were in great position," Said said. "There's bumping and banging and then there's cheap shots and that was a cheap shot. Everything else that I saw was good, clean, hard, rough racing."

For his part, Ambrose -- who briefly left the interview area to sit on a set of steps overlooking the racetrack for a few moments before returning to the briefing -- was extremely contrite.

"I really want to first apologize to Boris on one of those restarts -- I got into him and spun him out and ended his day [and] I just want to answer those questions now before they come up," Ambrose said. "I feel bad for him but our day has been fantastic and I'm really proud of my Kingsford guys -- we fought all day and never gave up."

If Said is true to his words, which obviously were uttered in the heat of the moment, the pair may not have seen their last on-track set-to.

Ambrose, a two-time V8 Supercar champion in Australia first said Cogswell should not have been involved in the situation, but that he would also be sure to speak to Said, whom he called an "idol" of his.

"There's no point in getting in the crew chief's face because he's not driving the car," Ambrose said. "I'm going to ring [Said] on Monday and hopefully sleep will help him just think through things a little bit more.

"I value Boris' friendship and he is a fantastic racer. I didn't mean to do it -- I don't know what happened, to be honest with you. I had pretty square contact and all of a sudden, he's up-speed and off to the left -- I caught his rear bumper bar in mine. I don't know what happened, it wasn't intentional. Racing happens. Look at the deal last year [in Montreal] with Robby Gordon [who spun out Ambrose late in the race while running for the win]. Bad stuff happens out there and it's unfortunate.

"I'll apologize to him to his face. I'll apologize to him [Sunday] in front of the media. I can't take it back. I wish I didn't do it. I don't know how it happened and that's all I can really say.

"If he wants to come talk to me about it, I'd like to sit down and just find some common ground. It's just unfortunate that that stuff happens but that's what racing is all about. That's what fans turn out for."

Busch, who has been in his share of hard racing, said at times what he saw Sunday crossed a line.

"These guys were battling like it was coming to the end of the race, which it was -- but we don't have V8 Supercars and we can't body slam each other and take each other out," Busch said. "The 59 [Ambrose] spun two guys out on the restarts and somebody else spun the 6 [David Ragan] out and it was just mayhem."

Busch said he didn't appreciate Ambrose's running him off the track on the previous restart.

"It was eventful, there," Busch said. "He was going low to either pass somebody or block my low line getting into [Turn] 1. I put it on the outside and figured if I was going to do something, I'd get on his outside and be on the inside for the next turn.

"I was just trying to make something out of nothing, but he just forced me off the track and I let it fall back in line. Again, I got on his outside coming through [Turn] 4 and going into the first ess he pushed me off into the grass. That just got me all jumbled up -- but it's just a product of road-course racing. Yes, you're trying to protect your position, but I think he was a little over the top."

Busch did say he appreciated Ambrose letting him cleanly by when he finally passed on his way to the win.