Prior to this weekend, I said a win by Juan Pablo Montoya could put him in the Chase hunt, as a long shot. Montoya had a terrible day, dropped out of the top 20, but instead Marcos Ambrose won. And now he is in the Chase hunt. If he wins another race in the next four weeks, he could be in the Chase.

That’s pretty amazing for a guy most of us only think about a couple times each year at the road courses. Marcos is a great racer, and he is bound to break through on an oval. Bristol is coming up soon, and Ambrose is strong there. If he can pull out another win, we might have a visitor from the land Down Under paying a surprise visit to the championship battle.
And it would be a very cool story.

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Roush Yates engines have a strong weekend, winning 8 races
Roush Yates engines took Watkins Glen International and the racing world by storm over the weekend, winning 8 races in 6 different forms of motorsports. The commitment made to providing consistent power and performance for all racers shined through as Roush Yates-powered engines found Victory Lane in racing's premiere series and beyond.

Marcos Ambrose came alive during the last lap of the Finger Lakes 355, racing past Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski in a hectic finish to win at Watkins Glen International for the second straight year. Ambrose led eight of the 90 laps around the road course but was shuffled back after a late race caution. He used his Roush Yates Ford powered engine to fight to the front despite a massive oil spill on the track laid down by the No. 47 of Bobby Labonte.

"It wasn't going to be handed to me. I had to get myself back up there," said Ambrose. "It was absolutely chaos at the end. I had really burned off the brakes and I wouldn't figure out where the oil was coming from. It was just absolutely crazy."

"In the end, nobody knew what was going on," said Richard Petty, team owner. "They were slipping and sliding off the race track. Marcos stayed with it all day. Everything fell our way."
Carl Edwards found victory lane this weekend in his first race of the season in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Holding off series regular Brad Keselowski, Edwards powered his Ford Mustang to the front to take the checkered flag in the Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen International.

"We got the trophy, and that is nice to win a race," said an elated Edwards. "We really need to win a race in the Cup series. I think this will help with that. It never hurts to get to Victory Lane."
Roush Yates and Ford Racing also won in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series this weekend with the No. 8 Starworks Motorsports team of Ryan Dalziel and Lucas Luhr winning their first race of the season in the Continental Tires 200 at Watkins Glen International. Starworks Motorsports teammates Sebastien Bourdais and Alex Popow finished second in their No. 2 Ford/Riley. Saturday's race marked the third win of the season for Roush Yates and Ford Racing teams, following their win last weekend at the inaugural Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the historic podium sweep at the 24 hours of Daytona. With only three races left in the season, Roush Yates powered Ford teams hope to use their consistent show of power and performance to make a run for the Grand-Am Rolex Series Championship.

"This was sweet redemption. We needed this one today," said Ryan Dalziel, co-driver of the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Ford/Riley. "When the yellow came out I got a little nervous, but there was no way we were not going to come out of it without a victory. Once I saw I got the jump on the first lap after the restart I was relieved."
Ford engines were once again in Victory Lane in Round 9 of the Traxxas TORC Series at Bark River Raceway (MI). Bryce Menzies finished first in the Pro 2 division and Ricky Johnson won in the Pro 4 division. Johnson's victory marked the 100th win of off-road racing for Menzies Motorsports.

Chris Buescher drove to another short track victory on Saturday in the Berlin ARCA 200 at Berlin Raceway. Buescher led the final 17 laps of the 40-lap race and joined Alex Bowman as a three-time winner in the ARCA series this season. This is his eighth career win and he now leads the standings in the ARCA series Championship.

Dirt late model racer Gregg Satterlee and dirt modified racer Jeremy Payne won with Roush Yates power over the weekend. Satterlee captured his 10th win of the season on Sunday at Hesston Speedway in Hesston, PA with his Ford DLM engine. Payne raced to his first United States Modified Touring Series win of the season on Friday, effectively turning around a slow rebuilding year.

The weekend brings Roush Yates' total win count for the season up to 105.

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