Ambrose perseveres for a Bristol breakthrough finish

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Crewmen and team personnel climbed down from the pit box wearing broad smiles, trading hugs and high-fives. Marcos Ambrose didn't win Sunday's event at Bristol Motor Speedway, but to the Australian-born driver and the members of his JTG Daugherty team, the final result sure felt like victory.

Food City 500

Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Kyle Busch	Toyota
2.	Denny Hamlin	Toyota
3.	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet
4.	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet
5.	Kasey Kahne	Dodge
6.	Mark Martin	Chevrolet
7.	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet
8.	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet
9.	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet
10.	Marcos Ambrose	Toyota

• Results | Laps | Photos

Despite making his debut appearance on the rough-and-tumble short track and limping through the closing laps without two engine cylinders, Ambrose recorded his best career result on a Sprint Cup oval track with a 10th-place finish in the Food City 500. It would have surely been better had the engine survived at full strength, but in the gleeful aftermath nobody really seemed to mind.

"I'm really keen to break that mantra of being a road-racing guy," said a beaming Ambrose, a former ace on Australian road-racing circuits (watch video). "I know I'm good on road courses, but I want to be good at every single track we go to, and [Sunday] was a big step to really validate why I'm here in a full-time Cup ride. I'm just so proud of my guys. We're going to celebrate tonight a little bit, because it feels like a win for us."

Don't call him a road-racing ringer anymore, not after Sunday's results. Ambrose started 13th and ran with the leaders all day, getting as high on the scoring tower as second place. Halfway through the race, it was clear his car was good enough to finish in the top five. But with about 200 laps to go, the No. 2 cylinder went out. Fifty laps later, the No. 4 cylinder died. Ambrose later surmised that plug wires had failed. Still, he held on to better his previous best oval finish, which was 17th in this year's Daytona 500.

"We were just hanging on there for grim death," said Ambrose, whose career-best Sprint Cup finish is a fifth-place result on the road course at Watkins Glen last year. "I had no straight-line speed, but it was rolling on the bottom so well that somehow we managed just to hold our spot. We lost a few, but we'll take it."

The result was something of a surprise to everyone -- including Ambrose's crew chief, Frank Kerr. Prior to Sunday, Ambrose had never even started a race on a short track at the Sprint Cup level. Did Kerr expect such a result?

"Absolutely not. I haven't slept all week worrying about coming here and going to Martinsville," he said, referring to another half-mile track the circuit visits next week. "But like I've told everybody, he's a race car driver, and obviously a great one. He's caught onto these cars way faster than I've seen a lot of guys come along. But he's definitely caught on faster than almost anybody."

Ambrose credits his oval-track progress to a fitness regime, to online simulation racing with other drivers, and to Kerr, whom he said has "saved my career." Kerr raves about his driver's ability to communicate, to provide accurate feedback on what the car needs and not panic when things go wrong. At 32, Ambrose knows this is probably his best shot at making it in NASCAR, and he's eager to prove he can do it.

"I'm hoping these kinds of runs will help me cement my reputation in the series, with my fellow drivers, too -- to know that I can do it, that I'm on form," said Ambrose, whose team essentially operates as a third car at Michael Waltrip Racing. "Just a great day all around."

Now comes Martinsville. Kerr said the team has tested at the "Little Rock," the flat short track built on the grounds of Rockingham Speedway, and is ready to go. Ambrose is excited at the prospect of building on his Bristol breakthrough.

"Hopefully our season gets stronger and stronger," he said, "and shows everybody why we're here and that we mean business."