Ambrose’s mistake hands Johnson win

SONOMA, Calif. — Marcos Ambrose had his first career Sprint Cup Series victory in sight when a late caution threw a roadblock into his path.

Then his own bizarre gaffe cost him the win.

Ambrose stalled his engine while trying to conserve gas late in Sunday’s race at Infineon Raceway, where his car came to a stop while leading with six laps remaining. He restarted and tried to re-claim his position at the front of the field, but NASCAR ordered him back to seventh place and Jimmie Johnson inherited the lead.

Johnson then cruised to his first career road course win, while Ambrose had to settle for a disappointing sixth-place finish.

“My bad,” the Australian said. “I’m disappointed. It’s NASCAR’s house and I’ll always play by the rules. I don’t agree with it, I don’t like it and that’s only because I lost the race because of it.

“I had the motor turned off trying to save a bit of fuel and just had trouble getting it fired again. That’s it.”

It was yet another cruel defeat for Ambrose, a road racing ace who has fallen short of victory several times in NASCAR because of various reasons.

He was spun by Robby Gordon while leading the Nationwide Series race at Montreal in 2007, and last year was passed by Carl Edwards in the final turn at the same track. Although he has two career Nationwide wins on the road course at Watkins Glen, he’s winless in the Cup Series despite three top-three finishes in five career road course races.

“I feel bad for him,” Johnson said. “It was definitely a gift, kind of handed to us.”

The four-time series champion won for the fourth time this season, but first since Bristol in March — a 10-race drought that had many wondering why Johnson was “slumping.”

Aside from ending the slump, Johnson more importantly added a road course victory to his resume and knocked Sonoma off the list of five active Cup tracks where he had not won.

But road course racing has never been his strength in NASCAR. He went into Sunday’s race with an average finish of 17th at Sonoma, which caused him to enter two Grand-Am races this season in an attempt to gain extra practice at making right and left turns.

“I’d say the bottom line to it is I love road course racing. I always have. I grew up racing off-road trucks, made a name for myself in that style of racing,” he said. “To come into the Cup Series and not have success early irritated me. That’s why today is so special to us, why it has meant so much.”

Although Johnson led 55 of the 110 laps, it was Ambrose’s race to lose at the end.

Ambrose, who led 35 laps, had a comfortable lead over Johnson when Brad Keselowski’s spin brought out the late caution. Instructed by crew chief Frank Kerr to conserve fuel in case the race went into NASCAR’s version of “overtime,” Ambrose began flipping his motor on and off at various points around the race track.

Unable to get it restarted at one point, his Toyota stalled and Johnson let a handful of cars around him.

NASCAR ruled Ambrose failed to “maintain reasonable speed” and dropped him to seventh, where he had blended back into line after re-firing his motor.