Return to Canada could be some closure for Ambrose

Marcos Ambrose was two laps away from winning his first Nationwide Series race one year ago at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve road course in Montreal. Ambrose dominated the NAPA Auto Parts 200, leading 37 laps before an irate Robby Gordon retaliated because of earlier contact from Ambrose, spinning the Australian and dropping him from the lead. Ambrose would finish seventh.

Fast facts

What	NAPA Auto Parts 200
When	3 p.m. ET Saturday
TV	ESPN, 3 p.m. ET
Radio	MRN (Sirius Ch. 28), 3:30 ET

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• By the Numbers: Montreal

Though not able to redo the closing laps of that race, a somewhat regretful Gordon, who was parked for the following day's Sprint Cup Series race at Pocono for disorderly conduct, tried to make amends with Ambrose by offering him a Cup ride the following week in Watkins Glen. Ambrose however, failed to make the race due to rain washing out qualifying.

"I feel like I want some closure," Ambrose says of his return this week to Montreal. "When you go back there, you have the chance to create a new story. I feel like we're going to do that. I have no regrets about what happened. I want to create a new story, a fresh angle and close this year with a really good run. I feel like I have a chance to win."

Any time a road course is involved, Ambrose has a chance to win. The former V8 Supercar Series champion has run four road-race events in the Nationwide Series, with three top-10 finishes. He made his Cup debut in June in Sonoma, running as high as second before issues with the gearbox ended his day.

"Whenever I go to road races, it's like I'm cheating because I have an advantage because of my experience level on that style of racing," Ambrose said.

Ambrose, who finished eighth in the Nationwide point standings last season, finds himself 12th this season, knocking on the door of the top 10 after a sluggish start to the year which included two DNFs during the first three races and a crew chief change, which saw Gary Cogswell replace Walter Giles.

"It hasn't been a good year really," Ambrose said. "We had a crew chief change very early in the season. It's disappointing that it went like that. It was in no one's interest, but at least it happened early enough that we could try and recover the season. It's been odd. We had a hauler catch fire and we lost two racecars. We came close to winning a race down in Mexico, but we fell a lap short. We have underperformed, there is no doubt.

"It's good -- we have road races coming up and we feel we have a good chance to win them. We're getting better and better on the mile-and-a-half ovals. We're doing good, but not as good as we want."