Robbed? Marcos Ambrose might have good reason to complain about NASCAR's late-race call

   Marcos Ambrose led the conga line down the stretch....and then.....(Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)   

    By Mike Mulhern
    mikemulhern.net

   SONOMA, Calif.
    Was Marcos Ambrose robbed of victory here Sunday?
   Well, the rule book does have Section 10-4, which clearly gives NASCAR officials the power to do what they did, in effectively penalizing Ambrose in the final 15 miles of the Sonoma 350 for slowing on the track while under yellow.
   However, NASCAR officials also have to face the questioning that in two similar incidents – involving Greg Biffle at Kansas in 2007, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Michigan in 2008 – they ignored that rule and allowed wins by Biffle and Earnhardt to stand.
   And then there was the equally controversial use of that rule to deny Robby Gordon a shot at winning a Nationwide race at Montreal in 2007 – by ruling Gordon didn't maintain enough speed under the yellow. However the reason Gordon couldn't maintain speed there was because he'd just been spun out by – ironically – Ambrose under that yellow.
   NASCAR's John Darby disputed any similarity in Sunday's incident and Biffle at Kansas, where Darby pointed out Biffle was still moving but got passed by Clint Bowyer and Jimmie Johnson, who both at the time thought that Biffle had slowed too much and wasn't keeping pace with the pace car.
  
  

  More wild and crazy racing by these NASCAR dudes. Hey, three-wide? It's a road course (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   So while NASCAR may have a good case for its call here, it will likely still face criticism that its decisions sometimes seem influenced by the particular drivers involved.
    Bottom line: Ambrose can really only blame himself. He probably didn't need to be worried about saving fuel; he'd just stopped around the 160-mile mark of 220-miler and should have had plenty of gas. 
    But then NASCAR could have made another no-call, or issued a 'warning' like it did with Earnhardt at Michigan.
    Even Johnson said he would have been good with it if NASCAR had put Ambrose back at the head of the pack for the final restart.
    Ambrose finished third here last summer, finished second at Watkins Glen, and finished second at Montreal last August. He could be the best road racer in NASCAR.
   And even winners Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus said Ambrose had the best car at the end of the race.
   Ambrose himself tried to be stoic: "My bad.....just feel really disappointed.
   "Might not like the call, but it is what it is.
    "I know the rule -- It's a judgment call."
    But Frank Kerr, Ambrose's crew chief, had to bite his tongue, and he was clearly angered. Kerr asked Darby about the Biffle-Kansas incident....and then he asked about the legality of a driver getting pushed around the track.
    NASCAR's specific calls, he said, "depends on who you are, I guess."

   

   Jimmie Johnson spraying victory champagne (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
   

   Johnson: "I feel bad for those guys. I drove my first Nationwide race for his car owners.
    "But something happened there at the end. And when they said he had to go back behind Kasey Kahne (for the restart), I felt bad for him...but not for long.
    "I saw the car (Ambrose0 shut off and roll to a stop. I didn't think he could be out of gas, but I just didn't know what went on.
    "I thought he broke, or something. I didn't know what was going on.
     "Unfortunate for him he was the fastest car at the end and I know he is kicking himself for whatever went wrong there.
     "You have to maintain pace car speed....and I said 'Okay, I'll take this.' And off I went."
 
     Teammate Jeff Gordon had a ragged day, though finishing fifth. He was framin' and bammin' to beat the band, and he left a trail of angry drivers in his wake.
   Like Elliott Sadler: "We got taken out by (Jeff) Gordon, and it's just frustrating. It's a shame.  He took out Martin Truex for no reason.  Then Clint Bowyer and me were side-by-side, and (Jeff Gordon) got two-for-one there.
   "He was just kind of knocking everything out of his way."
   David Ragan also took a shot from Jeff Gordon during the race...and fired back afterwards: "The thing that started our demise was really Jeff and (Mattias Ekstrom) wrecking us in turn seven, because that put us in the back -- and everyone from 15th place on back drives like idiots those last few laps. It's not even racing out there those last 10 or 15 laps."
    Kurt Busch too was hot at Jeff Gordon: "I tried to give him all the room that I could, but he got into us so hard that he cut down our right-rear tire and we had to pit under green and lost almost 30 positions."
  

  

   Jeff Gordon, long gone from this scene, left a trail of angry drivers in his wake (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   Jeff Gordon himself said the racing was "crazy.
    "On the restarts you just got used up -- Guys making it three-wide...and I'm as guilty of it as anybody. After they started doing it to me, I had to do it to others.
    "There are some things I'm not proud of that I did today. 
    "Certainly with Martin. I mean I completely messed that up, and I will try to patch that up.
    "Other things that happened out there were just really hard racing incidents."
    Truex was very hot at Gordon: "He should be," Jeff Gordon conceded. "And whatever is coming back to me, I understand.
    "When you blatantly get into a guy like that, you can say you are sorry all you want -- and I certainly had no intentions of what happened with him.
    "But I have Juan Pablo Montoya behind me, dive-bombing me into the braking zone...and where I made a mistake is trying to out-brake him.
     "I will try and explain that to Martin.
     "I feel terrible, because Martin races clean. He had a good run going, and I ruined that for him.
     "It was pretty wild and crazy. I made a lot of guys mad.
     "I certainly owe Martin Truex an apology.
     "You just had to race so hard there at the end. Guys were just running people off the track, running into the back of them.
     "It was like being on a short, dirt-track.
     "I know we've made a lot of people mad.
     "We never had a shot at winning after that."
   

   

   Yo, Jeff. This guy is ticked. Martin Truex Jr., one of Jeff Gordon's many victims Sunday, vows revenge at Loudon NH (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
   

   
But Jeff Gordon didn't apologize to everyone: "Kurt Busch had everything coming to him that I gave him, because he gave it to me on the restart before that.
    "So I don't feel sorry about that.
     "I certainly do with Martin.
     "And with Elliott I feel bad. I was racing him hard; he was blocking me, but we were trying to race somebody else too. But that was probably my fault as well.
    "There was a lot of that going on out there. I got a little frustrated because we had a good car and got shuffled on some of those restarts, and we were playing catch-up from that point on."

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    Marcos Ambrose's crew did a bang up job, beating Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus in key stops down the stretch (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)