Marcos Ambrose has achieved his best NASCAR Busch Series result with a sensational and hard fought fourth place in the Sam’s Town 250 at Memphis Motorsports Park in Memphis, Tennessee today.

Earlier in the day Ambrose scored his first NASCAR Busch Series pole position, making it a breakthrough day for the Australian driving the #59 Kingsford Charcoal Ford Fusion for Wood Brothers/JTG Racing.

The effort came on the rough and tough Memphis short track, showing that Ambrose is developing into a driver who excels in all disciplines of the sport.

Ambrose ran second in the early stages of the race but switched to a slightly different strategy when he made his second pit stop on lap 95, earlier than many other frontrunners.

Later in the race that slightly earlier second stop meant that the Australian had to make a further pit stop while leading the race, while others were able to stretch their final fuel run to finish the race with just two pit stops. Ambrose led 20 laps during the race, the third best laps led figure in today’s race.

The stop with 84 laps to go dropped Ambrose to 24th place but gave him a fresh set of Goodyear tyres, leading to a masterful drive from the 31-year-old.

Ambrose carved through the field, up into the top 10 within 20 laps of making the stop. Ambrose made his way past Nextel Cup driver Jamie McMurray with 22 laps to go to grab sixth and then climbed into the top five when he moved by Scott Wimmer with eight laps remaining.

A caution late in the race brought about a ‘green-white-checker’ finish, effectively creating a two-lap sprint to the finish in the caution-filled event that featured 25 cautions.

Through the final two corners Ambrose moved down the inside of Jason Leffler, who won at the similar short track in Indianapolis in July, and successfully grabbed fourth place right on the finish line.

Ambrose’s speed and progress through the field won him the Featherlite Most Improved Driver Award, passing 36 cars throughout the race.

The result tops Ambrose’s previous best finish of sixth at Dover in June and this first top five for Ambrose adds to the four top 10 finishes he scored in Mexico City, Las Vegas, Dover and Montreal.

This finish now gives Ambrose and his #59 Kingsford crew a fresh dose of confidence and momentum heading into the final three races of the season, with the next race the O’Reilly Challenge on November 3 at Texas Motor Speedway.

WHAT HE HAD TO SAY …

Marcos Ambrose – #59 Kingsford Charcoal Ford Fusion

“We got that top 10 that we were after and the pole was a bonus,” said Ambrose.

“We had a really strong car all day. We didn’t have the strategy that these guys did. But for our car, I think things worked out for the best.

“I fought all day and kept cool all day with all those cautions. We had a pretty straight day there. I’m really pleased with the crew and myself.

“I really feel like I’ve grown as a driver on short tracks. I feel like I’ve got more confidence when I come back to these kinds of places. All around, it’s been a great day.

“Once every now and again a short track is okay. But I prefer the mile and half or two mile ovals, that’s the bread and butter out there.”

Marcos Ambrose Pole Press Conference

Marcos Ambrose, driver of the #59 Kingsford Charcoal Ford Fusion captured his first NASCAR Busch Series pole today at Memphis Motorsports Park.

Ambrose clocked at time of 22.901 seconds at 117.899 mph. Ambrose talked to media after posting the day’s fastest time.

The Australian has one previous NASCAR pole after winning the pole in last year’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in Kentucky.

This effort is the time an Australian has won a NASCAR Busch Series pole position and the second pole position for a foreign driver this season, after Canadian Patrick Carpentier won pole in Montreal this August.

Ambrose now moves back up to eighth place in the NASCAR Busch Series points standings and remains second behind David Ragan in the Raybestos Rookie of the Year standings.

David Reutimann qualified in second position with this year’s Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti qualifying third for the 250-lap event at the 0.75-mile oval.

QUESTION: DID YOU KNOW YOUR FUSION WAS THAT FAST?

“Yeah, we had a good package yesterday and it but it’s been six months of hard work for us to get to this point. They brought a brand new car for me and we’re trying to improve it and get it better. It’s nice to actually deliver something for the guys. Getting the pole doesn’t matter. We’ve proven that our short track program is getting better and I’m getting better too.”

YESTERDAY YOU MENTIONED THAT YOU’D LIKE A TOP-10 FINISH THIS AFTERNOON, DOES THIS ADD TO YOUR CONFIDENCE?

“Yeah, I just want a top-10, get out of here and move on.”

TALK ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING LAPS.

“We’ve worked really hard on our short track program. We thought we had a really good piece coming here. We felt comfortable in practice yesterday, but when you get out there and deliver in these cold conditions, the second lap was going to be the one. I thought I blew it on the second lap. I slid up into [turn] one too fast and it stopped and I got around it and we snagged the pole.

“It’s just a great result. I feel so proud of my guys. I’m proud of Kingsford Charcoal for supporting us through a pretty tough year so far. We want to win this race. We want to do the very best we can and get back into contention for the rookie points. I know it’s an outside chance for us to beat [David] Ragan, but we have a chance at it. And if we can get a win today, it’s going to help us on that course.

“It’s a great surprise for us. We’ve been working really hard for the last six months on our short track program. We’re building our team. We’re getting better on the intermediates. We’ve had everything but the pole this year. We’ve had second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth. So finally to get that top spot, it feels like I’ve accomplished something this year. It’s a real nice surprise for us. I’m really proud of my guys. We’ve been working diligently over the last six months here to improve our situation. We’ve had bad days, but today I’ve just got to thank my team and thank Kingsford for supporting me and putting me in this car.

“Being a rookie in the Busch Series these days isn’t easy. I just want to thank everybody. It just feels like I’ve actually given them back something at least to talk about for a little while. Let’s not get carried away. We want to win the race today. We’ve got a race to win; qualifying means nothing to us, really for the points. We’re hanging in there for the rookie of the year deal and if we can come home with the crazy streak here, we just might be able to do something.

“We want to finish the season off strong and build for 2008. We’re with Kingsford next year in the Busch Series in the 59 car, so we really working towards that.”

DID RUNNING HERE IN THE TRUCK SERIES HELP YOU FIND THE LINE?

“Not as much as the Cup guys staying over in Atlanta. I think that helped us more than anything (laughs). I’m just really proud to say we snagged the pole and I’m getting better on the short tracks.

“They’ve been kind of a bogey track for me just in results, so it’s great to finish that now. We can finish talking about that I don’t know how to drive a short track. We’ll try to win this race today and I look forward to next year.

“I feel like our short track program will be good for next year. Our intermediate track is good already and speedways are a gamble. But our road course race is good too. We have a good chance to really do something special next year. I think this is a big step in the right direction for us.”

HOW IS YOUR COMFORT LEVEL ON SHORT TRACKS? WAS THAT THE LAST PIECE OF THE PUZZLE FOR YOU?

“It really has been difficult for me to get my head around the short tracks. It’s just the way the race is run, the way you’ve got to overdrive ‘em to get a lap time out of them. I feel like I’ve improved some and the car has improved some. We’re going to be a lot better than we were at the start of the season.”

DO YOU HAVE THE RACE SET-UP IN THE CAR?

“We tried to, as much as we could to have a race package. It’s tough at these impounders, but today was all about getting heat in the tires and I tried to abuse them as much as I could getting up into [turn] one on the first lap and on the out lap, getting up to speed lap. I’ve got it set up into [turn] one and we snagged a lap time.”

RESULTS: Sam’s Town 250 at Memphis Motorsports Park
Race 32 in the 2007 NASCAR Busch Series
1. #99 David Reutimann 253 laps
2. #22 Mike Bliss
3. #6 David Ragan
4. #59 Marcos Ambrose
5. #38 Jason Leffler
6. #29 Scott Wimmer
7. #26 Jamie McMurray
8. #11 Jason Keller
9. #88 Brad Keselowski
10. #49 Brian Keselowski

RESULTS: Qualifying
1. #59 Marcos Ambrose 22.901
2. #99 David Reutimann 22.933
3. #42 Dario Franchitti 23.013
4. #38 Jason Leffler 23.063
5. #11 Jason Keller 23.089
6. #18 Brad Coleman 23.103
7. #1 Sterling Marlin 23.118
8. #43 Bobby East 23.128
9. #30 Stanton Barrett 23.143
10. #20 Casey Atwood 23.156

2007 NASCAR Busch Series Points Standings – After Race 32
1. Carl Edwards 4364
2. David Reutimann 3833
3. Jason Leffler 3606
4. Kevin Harvick 3523
5. David Ragan 3464
6. Bobby Hamilton Jr 3313
7. Stephen Leicht 3203
8. Marcos Ambrose 3152
9. Greg Biffle 3136
10. Mike Wallace 3083

2007 RAYBESTOS ROOKIE OF THE RACE AWARD TALLY
David Ragan 11
Marcos Ambrose 5
Juan Pablo Montoya 4
Brad Coleman 4
Brad Keselowski 4
Kyle Krisiloff 3
Timothy Peters 1