Marcos Ambrose was the man to beat during the NASCAR Nationwide Series Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen International and there was no denying his Richard Petty Motorsports No. 09 team a visit to Victory Lane on Saturday afternoon. Ambrose had full control of the lead – 47 of 82 laps – en route to winning his fourth consecutive race at this track. This was Ambrose’s first series win of the 2014 season and his fifth series career victory.
Ambrose is now looking for Dale Jr’s broom – after the No. 88 team swept the races at Pocono last weekend – with an eye toward sweeping this weekend with a Sprint Cup Series win in the Cheez-it 355 on Sunday at 1 pm ET on ESPN.
“It is a fantastic day for RPM,” Marcos Ambrose said. “The King is here. It is just great to celebrate Victory Lane with him. For all he has been through personally this year and now our team making the Chase with the No. 43 and now winning a race in the Nationwide Series.”
Marcus Ambrose wasn’t the only Sprint Cup regular dominating the top-five spots for most of the race.
After making contact earlier in the day with Ambrose, Kyle Busch couldn’t match Ambrose in the closing laps, coming up short with a second-place finish by 1.555 seconds. Finishing third is the pole-sitter, Joey Logano, followed by Brad Keselowski in fourth and Matt Kenseth in fifth.
The Nationwide regulars dominated the next five spots, rounding out the top-ten. Series Rookie of the Year candidate and now series points leader, Chase Elliott comes home with a sixth-place finish, with Elliott Sadler finishing seventh, Rookie candidate Ty Dillon in eighth, Paul Menard, a Sprint Cup regular, in ninth and Brian Scott in tenth.
With his sixth-place finish, Chase Elliott leaves The Glen with a 12-point lead over Regan Smith, finishing in 17th-place.
There were a total five cautions for 14 laps in the 82-lap race. After some contact with Trevor Bayne, JJ Yeley brought out the third caution of the race when he spun off the track into a guard rail. The damage to his No. 28 led to Yeley ending his day with a DNF.
Brendan Gaughan, who won the previous road course race of the season at Road America, finished 28th on Saturday afternoon.
Next up is the last road course of the season as the Nationwide Series heads to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the Children’s 200 on Saturday, August 16th with a green flag starting time of 2:45 pm ET. Television coverage is by ESPN starting with their pre-race show at 2 pm ET.
Race Results
Point Standings