Marcos Ambrose finished a flying third aboard the Stanley Ford Fusion in the NASCAR Bud Shootout at Daytona International Speedway today, coming within one lap of taking his maiden win at the spiritual home of stock car racing.
Subsequent to being one of the fastest cars in the latter half of the race, Ambrose took the lead on the final restart, before being overhauled by reigning Series champion Tony Stewart and race winner Kyle Busch in the run to the finish.
The action packed all-star event is restricted to the top finishers from the previous season, with additional spots given to former Daytona winners, with Ambrose's Shootout result his best ever on a high-speed restrictor plate oval.
"It was a crazy race, that's for sure," Ambrose said.
"I saw pretty much every spin and crash; I was either in it or around it or just dodged it.
"I'm just really proud to run fast tonight. We've got a lot of steam under the hood this week, which is great."
Lining up from 21st position after a random draw determined the starting grid, Ambrose watched the opening exchanges from the rear of the pack.
The inevitable 'big one' multi-car accident struck on lap eight, with excellent spotting seeing Ambrose avoid the carnage.
Despite not picking up any damage in the incident, the hard application of the brakes boiled the brake fluid, which was seen to under the ensuing caution with swift repair work completed by the Richard Petty Motorsports crew.
Ambrose restarted the race from 18th on lap 16, and hung back in the pack for the opening segment of the nine-lap run to the mandatory mid-race break.
With the caution looming, Ambrose made his move, charging from 11th to fifth position in one lap, with the crew using the 10 minutes in the pits to once again attend to the brakes on the Stanley Ford Fusion.
From the resumption of racing, Ambrose briefly made it up into third position before the caution lights flashed when Clint Bowyer suffered a lurid spin through the turn one grass.
Pitting twice under caution to top up on fuel, the hectic race resumed with the eventual winner Busch somehow managing to save a spin right in front of Ambrose at turn two.
Ambrose forged his way into fourth, before being at the pointy end of second big incident of the night, with the number nine machine receiving significant damage to the right hand side of the car.
Multiple pit stops saw the outfit return to action, with Ambrose joining a seven car breakaway at the front of the field from the green flag.
The racing was incredibly intense, with Ambrose managing to pick his way through the final melee of the evening with more damage to the nose of the car.
Receiving the worst ride out of the final incident was Jeff Gordon, who slid on his side before rolling several times, emerging unharmed from his twisted Chevrolet.
In the two lap run to the chequered flag, Ambrose received a major push from Brad Keselowski to the lead of the race.
Busch and Stewart meanwhile were able to get a run on Ambrose, with Busch managing to pull out of the slipstream to take the closest win in the history of the Bud Shootout. Ambrose was third, only 0.211sec behind the leading duo.
The result bodes well for Ambrose, who has a busy schedule leading up to next weekend's Daytona 500, with qualifying tomorrow followed by the Gatorade Duels, which determines the final starting order for the main event.
In earlier opening practices for next weekend's race, Ambrose posted the second and eighth fastest times out of nearly 50 competitors on track.
Bud Shootout Results
1. Kyle Busch (Toyota)
2. Tony Stewart (Chevrolet)
3. Marcos Ambrose (Ford)
4. Brad Keselowski (Dodge)
5. Denny Hamlin (Toyota)
6. Greg Biffle (Ford)
7. Ryan Newman (Chevrolet)
8. Clint Bowyer (Toyota)
9. Carl Edwards (Ford)
10. Juan Pablo Montoya (Chevrolet)
