Sunday's late-race gaffe by Marcos Ambrose in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway was so stunning, it immediately begged the question.

Did it rank as one of the worst mistakes in the history of NASCAR's top national touring series?

Memories are short -- and it is important to point out that the winner of Sunday's event, the recipient of Ambrose's unforgivable stupidity, made his own costly late-race mistake just over one month earlier. That was when four-time defending Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson inexplicably got caught speeding on pit road while leading the Autism Speaks 400 at Dover. So, hey, this stuff happens even to the best of them.

But it's one thing when the four-time defending champ, already winner of three previous races this season and a total of 50 in his nine-year career, gets caught speeding on pit road. It's quite another when it's a guy like Ambrose, hungering for the first win of his fledgling Cup career now in its second full season.

Plus others have frequently been caught speeding on pit road -- including Juan Montoya, who cost himself a win at Indianapolis last season when he was guilty of the infraction on a late stop after earlier running away from the field on the track.

Those types of mistakes, while self-inflicted and every bit as painful, pale in comparison to Ambrose's apparent decision to attempt to save fuel when it might not even have been necessary. (His crew chief, Frank Kerr, insisted following the race that there was a need to save gas at the time -- but the No. 47 team apparently was worried needlessly about the possibility of multiple green-white-checkered finishes that never came).

Vegemite, anyone?

Anyone who has ever met Ambrose and spent even a little bit of time with him comes away with a warm feeling toward the friendly Australian.

Roughly 15 months ago, yours truly visited Ambrose in his hauler to talk about a variety of topics. Before long, Ambrose was discussing his love of Vegemite, the mysterious, dark brown gunk that Aussies spread on everything from English muffins in the morning to sandwiches at lunch to who knows what else at dinner. (Continued)