NASCAR » Ambrose takes second consecutive pole

Buoyed by setting the fastest Sprint Cup pole position in a quarter of a century last week at Michigan International Speedway, Marcos Ambrose showed that it was no fluke as he made the most of a rare road course outing for the series at Sonoma, California to claim his second consecutive pole.

"I am really thrilled for today," said Ambrose, who made his name in Australian V8 sportscars before moving to the US to take up the challenge of NASCAR. "I put a lot of effort into this race and everybody at Richard Petty Motorsports and the whole Stanley team have been rock solid behind me for the road course program.

"I am glad we could convert the effort into a great result," he added. "It is only one lap and we have to do a lot more on Sunday but at least we can go home and say we had the fastest car."

Compared to last week's over-200mph laps at the repaved Michigan oval, the speeds at Sonoma were under half that - but no less demanding on the cars and drivers all the same.

"I was more nervous running 90mph than I was running 200," he admitted. "You just have to be really precise with your marks and very aggressive and carry momentum through these tight corners."

Ambrose's crew chief Todd Parrott was positively gushing in his praise of his driver's performance in qualifying on Friday afternoon.

"I think what this man did today was incredible," he said. "I sat there on pit wall and watched the Sprint Vision and was in awe of that lap. It was just incredible. I have seen a lot of qualifying laps here but that was one of the smoothest, easiest looking laps I have ever seen. I am really proud of him."

Car owner Richard Petty, on the other hand, was characterisically more down to earth about the whole endeavour and not getting carried away - especially as the team has performed well at Sonoma before only to lose the race win opportunity.

"Winning this week was not as unexpected as what last week was," he said. "I tried to tell him and I didn't want to put any pressure on him for when he did come out here. I guess everything went good. Anytime you can sit on the pole it is good but the big deal now is getting ready for the race.

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