Q:
Do you have an idea why NASCAR parked you on Sunday? Was it the black flag? The spin out of Marcos after the restart? Was it the burnout after the race?
RG:
What Mr. Helton told me and, obviously, Saturday’s meeting was different than Sunday’s. All of us had a night to think about it and walk back in the trailer on Sunday morning, and the reason I was parked on Sunday last weekend was for not obeying the black flag penalty. I gave him my explanation of obeying the black flag penalty and he wanted to make sure I understood what the black flag penalty means. That means they have control. If every one of the drivers out there didn’t want to obey any of the rules, we would have a complete melee all the time. So I can understand what NASCAR was wanting to do there. On my side, in the little bit of defence I have for my side, is the fact that with a black flag normally if you’re speeding down pit road and you get a black flag penalty you have three laps to respond. I’m thinking, ‘OK, there’s two laps left in the race. We’ll respond after the race and we’ll deal with this.’ It wasn’t for wrecking Marcos. That wasn’t what my fine and penalty was for. Obviously detrimental to stock car racing, when they mention that I’m sure it’s everything added up together, but the black flag penalty was the key element here. My words for Mike Helton were, I need to understand what their rules are. Black flag means obey their rules and I do understand that and we’ll move forward from here.”
Q:
What do you do the next time you want to debate a call?
Everytime time we come out of pit road and we’re gonna count a spot, I’m just gonna take the second spot in lane. It’s in my nature. I’m gonna get it anyway, so I might as well take it (laughter). As far as speeding down pit road, I’m gonna go five miles under from now on and, hopefully, we’ll win the race still.
Q:
Marcos, your thoughts on running your first cup race?
MA:
It’s a big opportunity for me. Less than two years ago I had never even driven on an oval race track, let alone coming to NASCAR. This rise for me has been amazing. I didn’t think I’d get an opportunity to run Cup this year after we postponed our own program for the 47 Cup deal with Team Australia, so for me to get a nice little bonus is great. I feel like it’s a perfect situation for to come into the Cup Series. It’s a road course. That’s what I know what I’m doing. I’ve got no owner’s points to worry about. I can just go in and try my best and just enjoy the experience because I’m living a dream. I never imagined I’d get this far in motorsports at all, so it’s just a real bonus and I’m real thrilled to be here.”
Q:
Robby, how do you feel the rule should be changed for what happened to you last weekend?
RG
I’m sure NASCAR will come up with some type of solution. The rule is right now that you must maintain a cautious speed and that’s a little difficult. I know it resorts back to the next loop or something like that, but it’s not my job to make the rules. It’s my job to play by the rules, so that’s what my intention is for this weekend. I want to get back onto the positive side of things here and maybe try to stop focusing on some of the negative so much. I’m gonna put Marcos in a car that we qualified on the front row at Sonoma – identical, the same thing and he’s gonna have all the tools to go out here and win. I think we can put two cars, and knowing his ability with road racing, everybody talks about Boris Said and Ron Fellows being the road racing aces, but I’d put this guy right in the same category as those guys and it’s gonna be an exciting weekend.”
Q:
What are the keys to pulling this off?
RG:
I would say right now it’s pulled off. The next thing we’ve got to do is we’ve got to communicate on Friday very well. We’ve got to share information as a team would do. I haven’t had a team-mate in two years, so it’s gonna be nice to say, ‘OK, here’s what I’m on for tyre pressures, why don’t you try this.’ And he can come back and say, ‘This is the information we learned’. So I think there are gonna be some real benefits to being able to help each other this weekend. The little bit of distraction that we’re gonna get, I think it’s gonna be a bigger positive than a distraction by having that extra information on Friday. He can work on qualifying Friday because he has to make the show, so I’ll go work on race set-up. And then when it comes Saturday when he makes the show, we’ll hand him over where we’re at and we’ll start heading off from there and gather more information.
MA:
I think a lot of the hard work has already been done. Roush Yates Engines was great to get us a motor at the last minute – to get a race motor put in his back-up car. I managed to twist the arms of my pit crew to get them to hang over on Saturday, the same with my team owners, and talk through it with them, too. I think a lot of the logistics and hard stuff has been done. We really now just have to action it. I’ve got to get there on Friday and not knock around – get into the race track because I’ve never been there before – get a couple of qualifying runs down and just qualify the car in. Once we do that, then I’ll think about what we have to do after that, but my focus is just to get in the car and go. We’ll rely on Robby’s guys to give me a good package when I get there and, hopefully, it’ll take care of itself.”
![Marcos Ambrose - Kingsford Charcoal/Wood Bros Ford [pic credit: BAM media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/292515.jpg)
