Ambrose upbeat despite early exit at Infineon

SONOMA, Calif. -- Crewmen pushed carts through the garage back to the team hauler. Mechanics stripped parts from the racecar, its right rear scraped and dented from a run-in on the track. The Wood Brothers team was doomed to another low finish in a season that had seen too many of them already.

But Marcos Ambrose couldn't wipe the smile off his face. In his first Sprint Cup start, the Australian started seventh, tangled with defending event champion Juan Montoya, and ran as high as second at Infineon Raceway. He was left with only a 42nd-place finish to show for it after Elliott Sadler speared his No. 21 car while both drivers were running inside the top 10. But after mixing it up with NASCAR's best, the 31-year-old from Tasmania was giddy and looking for more.

Ambrose

"Just awesome," he said of the experience. "I couldn't believe it. Here I am passing Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, racing with [Dale] Earnhardt [Jr.], it's just fantastic. It's what I dreamed about, what I dreamed it would be like. It's certainly like that. It's just fantastic. It's just a real shame we couldn't finish the race."

That early exit certainly didn't help the Wood Brothers, a once-elite organization mired outside the top 35 in owner points, and needing to qualify on speed to make the race each week. What showed every sign of becoming a breakthrough instead left co-owner Len Wood ruing what might have been.

"We've had rotten luck all year," he said. "We've made some mistakes. But the last three weeks our performance has been clearly better. But no results to show for it. At least everybody knew we were here. We were a good top-six or seventh-place car the whole time. It's kind of the way our year's been going."

But Ambrose's performance was clearly something of a morale booster for a team that desperately needed it. The Nationwide Series regular was a fixture in the top 10 for most of the race, at one point running second behind eventual winner Kyle Busch. He escaped any serious damage when Montoya came down on him in Infineon's hairpin turn -- or, when he bored into Montoya. Who was at fault for the incident, which basically took Montoya out of contention for a repeat, depends on who you ask.

Ambrose believes he and Jamie McMurray were battling hard for position, and Montoya just didn't see them. Brian Pattie, crew chief on the No. 42 car, thought differently. "One-race wonder, hey?" he said on television. "Marcos is a good racecar driver, but to come in here and take a points guy out, that's unfortunate."

But Ambrose emerged unscathed. Nothing, it seemed, could dampen his day. "I'm having a blast out here," he said over the radio. "I never would have dreamed we'd run this well," he said afterward.

But he never had the chance to finish. Entering Turn 7 on Lap 83, Ambrose was downshifting into first gear when Sadler rammed him from behind. The impact detonated the gear box, and it was the ensuing transmission failure -- and not body damage -- that sent the No. 21 car into the garage for good.

But Ambrose was undeterred. "I just feel like my whole career, I've been learning and trying to be better," he said. "Days like [Sunday], you can showcase that I'm as good as many. Maybe not as good as the best. But I'm worthy of a shot."

And he'll get that shot. Ambrose is slated to attempt seven more Sprint Cup events for the Wood Brothers, among them the race next week at New Hampshire and the Aug. 10 event on the road course at Watkins Glen. Wood says the team's sponsor situation dictates which driver is in the car when -- Motorcraft wants Bill Elliott, the Air Force prefers Jon Wood, and Little Debbie likes Ambrose.

"Watching him on road courses like Montreal and Mexico, we knew he was a good road racer," Wood said. "Hopefully next week, we can get it together on an oval."

Ambrose certainly will attack the opportunity, just as he did in Sonoma. "It's hard work," he said. "I wish I would have come over 10 years ago. I'm just so lucky to have this opportunity. ... I'm not saying every week is going to be like this. But this is definitely going to be a race I'll remember for a long time."