Marcos Ambrose won the pole for the Sprint Cup race last week at 203 mph.
He won the pole for the Cup race this week at 95 mph.
But there was something similar in those two laps: Both pole-winning runs made him shake; Friday's lap was just as intense despite the change of speed.
Ambrose pushed his Richard Petty Motorsports car to the limit as he turned a lap of 95.262 mph, easily outpacing Jeff Gordon, who posted the second-best lap (95.067 mph) on Sonoma’s 1.99-mile road course.
“Last week, I qualified at over 200 miles an hour and I told myself I’ve just got to breathe,” Ambrose said. “I did a lap of under 100 miles an hour here, and I’m telling myself the same thing—stay calm, you’ve got to relax behind the wheel and let your hands do the work.”
The Australian driver won his first career pole a week earlier at Michigan, where maybe he wasn’t expected to take the top spot.
But at Sonoma, he was considered a threat to start from the pole from the beginning of qualifying. Many believe Ambrose is the best road-course racer on the circuit. Ambrose scored his first Cup victory last year at Watkins Glen and is a favorite to win Sunday in the Toyota/Save Mart 350.
He won the pole for the Cup race this week at 95 mph.
But there was something similar in those two laps: Both pole-winning runs made him shake; Friday's lap was just as intense despite the change of speed.
Ambrose pushed his Richard Petty Motorsports car to the limit as he turned a lap of 95.262 mph, easily outpacing Jeff Gordon, who posted the second-best lap (95.067 mph) on Sonoma’s 1.99-mile road course.
“Last week, I qualified at over 200 miles an hour and I told myself I’ve just got to breathe,” Ambrose said. “I did a lap of under 100 miles an hour here, and I’m telling myself the same thing—stay calm, you’ve got to relax behind the wheel and let your hands do the work.”
The Australian driver won his first career pole a week earlier at Michigan, where maybe he wasn’t expected to take the top spot.
But at Sonoma, he was considered a threat to start from the pole from the beginning of qualifying. Many believe Ambrose is the best road-course racer on the circuit. Ambrose scored his first Cup victory last year at Watkins Glen and is a favorite to win Sunday in the Toyota/Save Mart 350.