Road Course Ace Ambrose Wins Watkins Glen Nationwide Race

Photo Credit: Chris Trotman/ Getty Images

Providing an opener to the Watkins Glen race weekend for the NASCAR tour, the 2010 Nationwide Series' Zippo 200 warms up the suburb's 2.45 mile road course. An 82 lap event, victory at the NASCAR Nationwide Series event is significant since the Zippo 200 is only 8 laps shorter than the NASCAR Sprint Cup race running Sunday. For this reason and the chance of catching the NASCAR regulars off-guard, the 2010 edition of this race brought out a slew of road racing experts including Ron Fellows, Nelson Piquet Jr, J.R. Fitzpatrick and Jacques Villeneuve.

A road racing ringer with the distinct honour of being a full season NASCAR Sprint Cup driver, the talents of Marcos Ambrose in a stock car was too much for his Sprint Cup JTG Racing team to ignore. Winning the 2 previous Nationwide series events at Watkins Glen, the Tasmanian driver was offered an opportunity to 3-peat at the race track against fierce competition from road ringer and other moonlighting Cup series driver. As the team fields a #47 Zippo-sponsored Toyota, Ambrose still preserved memories of the Sprint Cup race that got away from him at Infineon Raceway (If Marcos was ever able to forget it, someone with the media who be certain to remind him of the Sonoma mishap throughout this weekend). Winning pole for the upcoming race served as effective therapy to setting the past in the past.

On Saturday afternoon, the present effects the Zippo 200 started as 43 cars jockeyed for position off the start. Making contact into the first corner through the drop of the green flag, two Sprint Cup regulars came together for what would be the beginning of an eventful race at the Glen. The #60 Roush-Fenway Racing Ford driven by Carl Edwards brushed the side of the #33 Chevrolet owned and piloted by NASCAR Sprint Cup point leader Kevin Harvick. With minor damage applied to each race car, both cars continued while Marcos Ambrose led what would be the first 18 circuits around the track.

Under the first run, Edwards encountered the worst racing luck as his #60 Ford began to develop an engine issue. While the Roush-Fenway Racing team were determined to keep Edwards in the race, this would eventually prove a losing cause as the Ford was forced out of the Zippo 200 after completing 27 laps. With Carl Edwards out of the Watkins Glen event, this retirement cost the driver a 3rd straight road course win in NASCAR Nationwide Series competition.

A full-course yellow flew on lap 21 for debris following a first round of pit stops. Prior to this, the #33 of Kevin Harvick was served with a speeding penalty which dropped the top 5 car to rear of the NASCAR Nationwide field. Though Harvick would be able to climb back up the running order, he would not be a formidable match for the leading trio of Toyotas.

On the lap 23 restart, for the first caution at Watkins Glen, Joey Logano led for what would be a very short green flag run as a major crash out of turn 1 amounted to a massive 10-car wreck. Started when the #38 of Jason Leffler went wide of the first corner, his attempt to rejoin the pack resulted in contact with the #16 car of Colin Braun setting off a chain reaction within the narrow, guardrail-lined area of track. Trevor Bayne, Justin Allgaier and Brendan Gaughan are only a few participants involved in the melee. As drivers Steven Wallace and Kevin Harvick avoided serious damage through evasive actions on track, Roush-Fenway Racing development driver Billy Johnson's #6 Ford  failed to slow down significantly when he collided with the stalled Chevrolet of Tony Raines. Drilling Raines, Johnson lifted the #34 Chevrolet on top of the #6 Ford.  A 25 minute red flag period was required to remove the derelict race cars and repair the Armco retaining barriers.

Restarting the race after what would prove to be the only multi-car wreck, Joey Logano's #20 Toyota would be passed by teammate Kyle Busch on  lap 27 leading for 14 laps until the #47 of Marcos Ambrose applied pressure on the Joe Gibbs Racing driver. Through an aggressive move heading into the inner loop chicane between turn 4 and 5, Ambrose used lapped traffic to his favour. As Busch's #18 Toyota slowed to pass the slower cars, the #47 Toyota practically drove flat-out storming to the lead. Taking the lead back on lap 41 with this move, Ambrose retained the top position for the remaining one-half distance.     

With Marcos Ambrose holding the lead even as two cautions bred for additional double-file restarts, the fight within the top 10 was alive. Losing 2nd to Logano, Kyle Busch was loathing his race car falling to 5th place as he received the checkered flag. Having also passed Busch, Kevin Harvick achieved a hard-fought 3rd place effort as he hustled from deep in the pack and averted the multi-car wreck to gain the podium spot.


Enjoying good days within the NASCAR Nationwide series are several of the part-time road racers. As Ambrose celebrated in Watkins Glen victory lane, Ron Fellows brought the #88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet home 6th while his Canadian teammate J.R. Fitzpatrick would also recover from a late race spin to finish 11th. Former Formula 1 drivers Nelson Piquet Jr as well as Jacques Villeneuve finished inside the top-10 with Piquet finishing 7th and Villeneuve placing in position behind.

A benefactor from Carl Edward's mechanical woes, NASCAR Nationwide series points leader Brad Keselowski would see the gap grow to 327 markers over his closest competitor Edwards.


2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series
Zippo 200
Watkins Glen International

1 47 Marcos Ambrose Kwik Fill/Red Apple/Zippo Toyota

2 20 Joey Logano GameStop Toyota

3 33 Kevin Harvick Jimmy John's Chevrolet

4 22      Brad Keselowski Ruby Tuesday/Discount Tire Dodge

5 18 Kyle Busch Combos Toyota

6 88 Ron Fellows GT Vodka Chevrolet

7 27 Nelson Piquet ArcSight/G2 Custom Apparel Ford

8 32 Jacques Villeneuve Dollar General Stores Toyota

9 66 Steve Wallace 5-hour Energy Toyota

10 181 Michael McDowell K-Love Dodge 

Other Notables 

11 7 J R Fitzpatrick Schick Hydro Chevrolet

22 09 Boris Said Zaxby's Ford

33 60 Carl Edwards Fastenal Ford 

34 12 Justin Allgaier Verizon Wireless Dodge

35 38 Jason Leffler Great Clips Toyota

33 4 60 Carl Edwards Fastenal Ford34 20 12 Justin Allgaier Verizon Wireless Dodge

Will Power Wins IZOD IndyCar Race at the Glen

Photo Credit: Steve Swope/ Penske Racing

On a 4th of July afternoon, a northern New York track was alive as the IZOD IndyCar Series trekked to the Watkins Glen International for this year's open wheel event. Competing on the expanded 3.4 mile Grand Prix course, the Sunday Camping World at the Glen held at the 11-turn road course would be the first time in 2 months that the IZOD Indy cars find themselves battling their left and right turns.

Taking pole on Saturday, Penske Racing's #12 Will Power returned to his dazzling road course form after four races of oval racing where the Australian experienced more difficulty than the first four road courses. Power led a 1-2-3 Penske Racing performance in qualifying with Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe assembling themselves in a position to atone for Penske Racing's NASCAR Sprint Cup late race collapse at Daytona the previous night. Starting on the slower but harder Firestone black tires, the Penske Racing group started the race confident to run at the front. In first laps, Briscoe's #6 found his way around Castroneves' #3 with the first non-Penske Racing challenge on the top-3 wouldn't come until lap 4.

Starting on faster, softer red option tires, the Target/Chip Ganassi Racing pair of Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti ran down the 3rd place running Castroneves pressuring the Brazilian at one point with a three-wide passing attempt. While the #3 Penske Racing car averted the aggressive Target cars for that instant, Dario Franchitti's #10 car would find his way around Helio Castroneves on lap 6 with Franchitti's #9 teammate of Scott Dixon eager to follow. Through the Esses Dixon thought he saw a chance but ended up colliding with Castroneves. Damaging the #9 car's right front wing plate and the puncturing the left rear of the #3, both cars would continue the race but their early race pit stops required both teams to fall off sequence with the field. Ultimately ending up as a disadvantage dropped them down the leadership late in the Camping World at the Glen running, Helio Castroneves would assess blame to Dixon in post race as "..a little impatience by the #9."

Several newcomers to the 2010 IZOD IndyCar schedule were featured at the Camping World at the Glen race. Starting his first race of the year, Paul Tracy took over the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing #24. Just missing the field for the Indy 500, Tracy's presence at Watkins Glen comes weeks before two races in Canada which he is guaranteed to be a favourite. In this preparation event with the #24 team however, Paul Tracy his way up from 12th to 9th at lap 4 but was dealing with an ill-handling race car deeper into the run which erased those early gains. While the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing crew were able to get the race vehicle more to Tracy's liking later in the race but lost too much distance to become a factor within the event. However, Paul Tracy did have a spirited bout with former A1 Grand Prix driver Adam Carroll. Driving a 5th Andretti Autosport car, team driver Marco Andretti helped the driver get noticed to driver this race as well as the upcoming Mid-Ohio round.

On lap 17, a spin and stall by the #4 car of Dan Wheldon brought out the race's first full course caution. Many drivers pitted to the attention of their pit crews with the #9 of Scott Dixon being one exception to lead the race with #8 KV Racing Technology car of EJ Viso and the FAZZT Race Team #77 driven by Alex Tagliani following, each running on different pit stop strategies. Once the race restarted, the #8 and #77 would pit 6 laps later leaving the participants of the early race incident Dixon and Castroneves in the top-2 spots. As the continued, the #9 and #3 would pit returning the lead to the #12 of Will Power by lap 32.

Following the previous year minor upset victories, the #2 HP de Ferran Dragon Racing team car piloted by Raphael Matos was delivering a strong mid-race emergence from 9th starting spot. In past runnings of the Watkins Glen IndyCar round the race was highlighted by the performance of incredible drivers behind the wheel of non-superteam cars. In 2008, Ryan Hunter-Reay drove to a fierce victory in the last full season of the Rahal-Letterman Racing outing. Last season, Justin Wilson delivered another minor upset to win the race for Dale Coyne Racing delivering the popular long-time owner his first win in top open wheel series. The efforts of Matos in the 2010 Watkins Glen race was complicated since lap 17 when his car's telemetry system malfunctioned. Ending up with a convincingly brilliant finish of 4th at the end, team president Gil de Ferran was quick to credit everyone when the de Ferran Dragon Racing team for the season-best run. “First, the engineers made some great decisions overnight and the crew made the car reliable. Second, we have been struggling lately with pit stops, but the crew was flawless today and even gained us a position on one of the stops. And last but certainly not least, Rafa drove a champion’s race today. He was calm, cool and collected. He was extremely fast all day, running at the same pace as the leaders and attacked when he needed. In short he was flawless and drove a really smart race."

Since winning the Indy 500 Rookie of the Year award, Swiss driver Simona de Silvestro has been involved in a fire-filled crash at Texas and another terrible run at Iowa Speedway. Hoping to turn her fortunes back on the road courses would not allow de Silvestro to escape the recent streak of poor runs. At Watkins Glen, he #78 car slid through turn 8 on lap 40 and collided with the inner Armco barrier when she attempted to countersteer through the slide. Alright physically, de Silvestro remarked afterwards "...I tried to make up too much time. I made a mistake." Finishing 24th, this race is one the rookie and the Team Stargate World/HVM Racing organization will be working to put behind them as they head for the Toronto Honda Indy.

On what would be the Camping World at the Glen's final restart, Ryan Briscoe led Will Power out of the pits but the #12 of Power immediately put pressure on Briscoe's #6 car before reaching the bus stop. On lap 46, the #10 car of Dario Franchitti moved past Ryan Briscoe through the bus stop as he then mounted a challenge to Will Power. Looking good early for giving Target/Chip Ganassi Racing a fourth victory at the Watkins Glen IndyCar race, Franchitti would only fall within a second of the #12 on two separate laps. Admitting his used too much of his tires to get up to second place, Dario Franchitti would fall back into the clutches of Ryan Briscoe through the final lap passing the worn #10 car on the frontstretch through the final lap.

Taking victory for the first race since St Petersburg, Will Power drove a quiet, dominant race to keep him out front in the #12 Penske Racing car. Briscoe, Franchitti, Matos and the KV Racing Technology #32 of Mario Moraes rounded out the top-5 at the line.

Scoring the majority of points, Will Power pads his lead for the IZOD IndyCar Series overall standings as well as for road racing points total for the newly-named Mario Andretti Trophy.

As the Penske Racing team finished their celebration at Watkins Glen, the race enters 2011 as a question mark. Presenting a struggle for attracting fans and corporate hospitality, the IZOD IndyCar Series is unlikely to award a fourth of July weekend date next year. Unlike the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series which has heavily-invested corporations ready to sure up Coke Zero 400 hospitality to the event, the IZOD IndyCar Series is struggling to find companies and people willing to work through the July holiday weekend leading many rumours to assume the race is at least going to be moved elsewhere in the 2011 schedule. Other suggest the venue will leave the IZOD IndyCar tour altogether next year.



2010 IZOD IndyCar Series

Camping World at the Glen

Watkins Glen International


1. 12 Will Power/Australia/ Penske Racing
2. 6 Ryan Briscoe/Australia/ Penske Racing
3. 10 Dario Franchitti/Scotland/ Target/Chip Ganassi Racing
4. 2 Raphael Matos/Brazil/ de Ferran Dragon Racing
5. 32 Mario Moraes/Brazil/ KV Racing Technology
6. 4 Dan Wheldon/England/ Panther Racing
7. 37 Ryan Hunter-Reay/United States/ Andretti Autosport
8. 9 Scott Dixon/New Zealand/ Target/Chip Ganassi Racing
9. 3 Helio Castroneves/Brazil/ Penske Racing
10. 22 Justin Wilson/England/ Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
11. 8 EJ Viso/Venezuela/ KV Racing Technology
12. 06 Hideki Mutoh/ Japan/ Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
13. 26 Marco Andretti/United States/ Andretti Autosport
14. 24 Paul Tracy/Canada/ Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
15. 5 Takuma Sato/Japan/ KV Racing Technology
16. 27 Adam Carroll/Northern Ireland/ Andretti Autosport
17. 77 Alex Tagliani/Canada/ FAZZT Race Team
18. 36 Bertrand Baguette/Belgium/ Conquest Racing
19. 14 Vitor Meira/Brazil/ AJ Foyt Racing Enterprises
20. 7 Danica Patrick/United States/ Andretti Autosport
21. 11 Tony Kanaan/Brazil/ Andretti Autosport
22. 34 Mario Romancini/Brazil/ Conquest Racing
23. 18 Milka Duno/Venezuela/ Dale Coyne Racing
24. 78 Simona De Silvestro/Switzerland HVM Racing
25. 19 Alex Lloyd/England/ Dale Coyne Racing