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Expect Marcos Ambrose to join Toyota in NASCAR
It seems an announcement is imminent that Marcos Ambrose will be severing his long-time ties with Ford to drive a Toyota in NASCAR next year.
It looks as though it will involve JTG Daugherty Racing with which Ambrose has done most of his racing in American stock cars making an arrangement with Michael Waltrip Racing, one of the teams fielding Toyotas in NASCAR's premier division, the Sprint Cup.
We said here long ago that Ambrose needed to get into a better situation if he is to really go places in NASCAR, and mentioned in early July that he may not be in a Ford next year, although at that time it was sounding as though he may have been going to be in a Chevrolet.
For the record, Ambrose was 16th for JTG Daugherty Racing in the weekend's second tier Nationwide Cup race on the "Monster Mile" at Dover, Delaware, and 29th for Wood Brothers in the Sprint Cup race.
He's 10th in the Nationwide championship and, having only done six rounds, is 49th in the Sprint Cup standings.
Michael Waltrip Racing is headed by two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip but is far from being one of the super teams of NASCAR.
Indeed, it has struggled in recent years, although Waltrip finished 10th in the Cup race at Dover this morning (Monday), Australian time -- just his second top 10 this year, and he has one top five.
Waltrip is 30th in the Sprint Cup standings, while his team's other two drivers -- David Reutimann and Michael McDowell -- are 24th and 39th and finished 17th and 29th in the Cup race at Dover.
So this is not a top outfit, and it was infamously caught cheating on fuel when it was the flagbearer for Toyota's entry into the Sprint Cup last year.
(Joe Gibbs Racing has since become the No. 1 team representing the Japanese manufacturer, ahough it too was found guilty of tampering illegally with its Nationwide engines recently and had crew suspended and fined).
However, things may be looking up for MWR -- it has recruited Formula 1 team McLaren's head of race operations, Steve Hallam, for next year.
While history says outsiders generally fail at trying to upstage NASCAR's regulars, on and off the track, Hallam is a veteran of more than 400 GPs over 27 years, five world championships and worked for Team Lotus before McLaren.
Ambrose has been associated with the Blue Oval through Formula Ford, V8 Supercar racing which yielded him two Australian titles, and Ford helped him get into American racing.
If he is indeed now headed for MWR and Toyota it hopefully will be a step in the right direction for him, but -- as we are seeing with The Chase this season -- to achieve genuine and consistent success in NASCAR it is clear a driver needs to be with one of the four super teams -- Roush, Hendrick, Childress or Gibbs.
Ambrose is still a long, long way from getting a shot with one of those teams.
Fords from the Roush Fenway Racing stable made a clean sweep of the podium in the Sprint Cup round at Dover.
Greg Biffle won for the second straight week, becoming the first driver to win consecutive races at the start of The Chase -- introduced in 2004 as a battle between the elite competitors of the season, initially 10 and now 12, over the final quarter of the season.
Biffle passed teammate Matt Kenseth in the last of 15 lead changes seven laps from the finish at Dover.
Kenseth held on for second, with Carl Edwards third -- ahead of six Chevrolets and three Toyotas.
Biffle -- who also won last year at Kansas, the next stop on the tour -- is now tied with Chevrolet driver Jimmie Johnson, champion the past two season, for second this season -- 10 points behind Edwards.
All 12 drivers in The Chase began with 5000 points plus 10 points for each of any wins they had before the first Chase round at New Hampshire.
Kyle Busch, an eight-time Cup winner this year up to that point, was classified only 43rd at Dover due to engine problems.
The 21-year-old Joe Gibbs Racing superstar has virtually conceded his championship hopes have been dashed in two weeks as he now trails Edwards, a five-time winner before The Chase, by 210 points.
It's a cruel business, but few of the Good Ol' Boys of NASCAR and the sport's enormous fan base will have any sympathy for the brash Busch from Las Vegas.
NASCAR standings after two rounds of The Chase -- Carl Edwards (Ford) 5390 points, Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 5380, Greg Biffle (Ford) 5380, Jeff Burton (Chevrolet) 5308, Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet) 5289, Clint Bowyer (Chevrolet) 5284, Tony Stewart (Toyota) 5277, Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) 5272, Dale Earnhardt Junior (Chevrolet) 5261, Matt Kenseth (Ford) 5223, Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 5197, Kyle Busch (Toyota) 5180.
NASCAR Nationwide Series standings after 29 of 35 rounds -- Clint Bowyer 4222 points, Carl Edwards 4036, Brad Keselowski 3974, Mike Bliss 3779, David Ragan 3721, David Reutimann 3676, Kyle Busch 3673, Mike Wallace 3381, Jason Leffler 3348, Marcos Ambrose 3321.
It seems an announcement is imminent that Marcos Ambrose will be severing his long-time ties with Ford to drive a Toyota in NASCAR next year.
It looks as though it will involve JTG Daugherty Racing with which Ambrose has done most of his racing in American stock cars making an arrangement with Michael Waltrip Racing, one of the teams fielding Toyotas in NASCAR's premier division, the Sprint Cup.
We said here long ago that Ambrose needed to get into a better situation if he is to really go places in NASCAR, and mentioned in early July that he may not be in a Ford next year, although at that time it was sounding as though he may have been going to be in a Chevrolet.
For the record, Ambrose was 16th for JTG Daugherty Racing in the weekend's second tier Nationwide Cup race on the "Monster Mile" at Dover, Delaware, and 29th for Wood Brothers in the Sprint Cup race.
He's 10th in the Nationwide championship and, having only done six rounds, is 49th in the Sprint Cup standings.
Michael Waltrip Racing is headed by two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip but is far from being one of the super teams of NASCAR.
Indeed, it has struggled in recent years, although Waltrip finished 10th in the Cup race at Dover this morning (Monday), Australian time -- just his second top 10 this year, and he has one top five.
Waltrip is 30th in the Sprint Cup standings, while his team's other two drivers -- David Reutimann and Michael McDowell -- are 24th and 39th and finished 17th and 29th in the Cup race at Dover.
So this is not a top outfit, and it was infamously caught cheating on fuel when it was the flagbearer for Toyota's entry into the Sprint Cup last year.
(Joe Gibbs Racing has since become the No. 1 team representing the Japanese manufacturer, ahough it too was found guilty of tampering illegally with its Nationwide engines recently and had crew suspended and fined).
However, things may be looking up for MWR -- it has recruited Formula 1 team McLaren's head of race operations, Steve Hallam, for next year.
While history says outsiders generally fail at trying to upstage NASCAR's regulars, on and off the track, Hallam is a veteran of more than 400 GPs over 27 years, five world championships and worked for Team Lotus before McLaren.
Ambrose has been associated with the Blue Oval through Formula Ford, V8 Supercar racing which yielded him two Australian titles, and Ford helped him get into American racing.
If he is indeed now headed for MWR and Toyota it hopefully will be a step in the right direction for him, but -- as we are seeing with The Chase this season -- to achieve genuine and consistent success in NASCAR it is clear a driver needs to be with one of the four super teams -- Roush, Hendrick, Childress or Gibbs.
Ambrose is still a long, long way from getting a shot with one of those teams.
Fords from the Roush Fenway Racing stable made a clean sweep of the podium in the Sprint Cup round at Dover.
Greg Biffle won for the second straight week, becoming the first driver to win consecutive races at the start of The Chase -- introduced in 2004 as a battle between the elite competitors of the season, initially 10 and now 12, over the final quarter of the season.
Biffle passed teammate Matt Kenseth in the last of 15 lead changes seven laps from the finish at Dover.
Kenseth held on for second, with Carl Edwards third -- ahead of six Chevrolets and three Toyotas.
Biffle -- who also won last year at Kansas, the next stop on the tour -- is now tied with Chevrolet driver Jimmie Johnson, champion the past two season, for second this season -- 10 points behind Edwards.
All 12 drivers in The Chase began with 5000 points plus 10 points for each of any wins they had before the first Chase round at New Hampshire.
Kyle Busch, an eight-time Cup winner this year up to that point, was classified only 43rd at Dover due to engine problems.
The 21-year-old Joe Gibbs Racing superstar has virtually conceded his championship hopes have been dashed in two weeks as he now trails Edwards, a five-time winner before The Chase, by 210 points.
It's a cruel business, but few of the Good Ol' Boys of NASCAR and the sport's enormous fan base will have any sympathy for the brash Busch from Las Vegas.
NASCAR standings after two rounds of The Chase -- Carl Edwards (Ford) 5390 points, Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 5380, Greg Biffle (Ford) 5380, Jeff Burton (Chevrolet) 5308, Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet) 5289, Clint Bowyer (Chevrolet) 5284, Tony Stewart (Toyota) 5277, Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) 5272, Dale Earnhardt Junior (Chevrolet) 5261, Matt Kenseth (Ford) 5223, Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 5197, Kyle Busch (Toyota) 5180.
NASCAR Nationwide Series standings after 29 of 35 rounds -- Clint Bowyer 4222 points, Carl Edwards 4036, Brad Keselowski 3974, Mike Bliss 3779, David Ragan 3721, David Reutimann 3676, Kyle Busch 3673, Mike Wallace 3381, Jason Leffler 3348, Marcos Ambrose 3321.
