Ambrose overcomes bad start for third-place finish

SONOMA, Calif. -- Like most sports, racing can be a little funny sometimes.

One minute, you're a hero and the next you're a zero. Or vice versa. Just ask Marcos Ambrose, who drove his No. 47 Toyota to a rousing third-place finish in the Toyota/SaveMart 350 at Infineon Raceway on Sunday after starting in 43rd, or dead last.

Toyota/SaveMart 350

Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Kasey Kahne	Dodge
2.	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet
3.	Marcos Ambrose	Toyota
4.	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet
5.	Denny Hamlin	Toyota
6.	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet
7.	A.J. Allmendinger	Dodge
8.	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet
9.	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet
10.	Elliott Sadler	Dodge

Results | Laps | Photos | Rewind

Ambrose qualified to start third in the race on Friday, but was forced to go to the rear of the field after blowing an engine during final practice on Saturday. Then he banged up the backup car a little bit when tussling needlessly with the No. 48 driven by three-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson while trying to turn a couple of laps in the new car late in practice.

"Well, we went from hero to zero," Ambrose said when he was asked to size up the situation.

Well, he actually went from hero to zero back to hero again by the time Sunday's race was concluded. And he did it in unusual and exciting fashion while finishing behind only race winner Kasey Kahne and runner-up Tony Stewart.

By Lap 10 of what turned out to be a 113-lap race because of the green-white-checkered finish, Ambrose had gained 18 positions and seemed on his way to a strong day. But then, after getting bottled up in traffic, crew chief Frank Kerr decided to have Ambrose make a green-flag pit stop on Lap 12. Ambrose admitted afterward that it wasn't the pit strategy they had envisioned employing prior to the race.

"No, it wasn't," Ambrose said. "There were like 10 cars wadded up there in front of us. It's really dangerous when you're running like that; you can tear your stuff up really easily. So we just decided to get out of there, run in some clean air, and it worked out."

At first, though, Ambrose came back out onto the track in 40th place. He moved all the way up to third when others who had not stopped previously were forced to make their own green-flag stops, and then fell back to 21st on Lap 50 when he had to make a second stop before the others.

He needed only 10 more laps on the 1.99-mile road course to climb back into the top 10, where he remained pretty much for the rest of the day. After what had happened Saturday, he was thrilled with his finish.

"I was mad. I wasn't down, I was just angry," Ambrose said of what transpired Saturday. "We had a shot to really run up front all day and maybe win the race, and I thought maybe it had been taken away from us.

"But we fought hard. We did some strategy that was a bit oddball, but it worked out in our favor and here we are. We passed a lot of cars. I reckon I passed the field three times over [Sunday]. We brought it home when we needed to. We just couldn't quite have enough to get the two guys in front there, but I'm proud of what we did as a team and where we finished." (Continued)