Marcos Ambrose, for the second year in a row, owns Watkins Glen International. Ambrose qualified 5th in the #9 Dewalt Ford on Saturday, with Juan Pablo Montoya and his #42 Target Chevrolet winning the pole for the second straight week. It was Kyle Busch, though, who dominated for much of the race and led nearly half of the 90 laps, and at the white flag looked to be the winner. The challenging road course had other plans, however. A sprinkle of rain earlier in the race left parts of the track still damp, and one of the cars (later determined to be Bobby Labonte’s machine) deposited a fine spray of oil around the course resulting in an extremely slick surface. By turn 1 of the last lap Busch had lost grip, slowed and spun to the inside wall with Keselowski helping him out with a bump to the rear. With the #18 MM’s Toyota out of contention the race was between Keselowski and Ambrose, and what a race it was. Sliding in oil, cutting through the grass, swapping the lead, bumping with no intentional wrecking, it may have been the most exciting finish in a NASCAR race in several years.
Many fans, and drivers as well, felt that NASCAR should have thrown a caution for the oil on the track. Possibly since it wasn’t visible, or it was so late in the race and everything was happening so fast, officials let the drivers race it out. Some cars were affected directly – Jeff Gordon spun on the last lap, killing his tremendous late-race run up through the top ten. Busch ended up 7th after leading at the white flag, and other drivers lost momentum when they lost grip. A caution flag might have been more equitable, but the fans would have missed out on witnessing an epic battle between two top road racers.
Previous points leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a late-race spin as well, taking him to 22nd in the race and knocking him to 4th in the championship standings. By virtue of winding up a lap down just behind the leaders, Junior had a front-row seat to the wrecking. “There was just oil everywhere from somebody,” Earnhardt said. “You couldn’t see it, so you didn’t know where to run. I saw the leaders were coming and I was just trying to get out of the way. They were in oil and I was in oil and then I watched everything that happened in front of me. It was a bad deal, I think.”
Jimmie Johnson’s strong 3rd place finish put him at the top of the points board with four races to go until the start of the Chase.
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