Aussie Ambrose Posts Fastest Time In Final Duel Practice

Marcos Ambrose led the final practice for Thursday’s Gatorade Duel, bringing some Australian flavor to the run-up to the Great American Race.

A surprising Reed Sorenson, racing part-time in Sprint Cup this year for Braun Racing, was third, followed by Joey Logano and Matt Kenseth (who had been fastest in the first session).

Logano, though, will be forced to a backup car after a multi-car incident not of his own doing.

Early in the session, Mike Bliss was in the middle of the track, got loose and lost control, sending him toward the wall and crashing straight into Logano.

The wreck also impacted Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson, the four-time defending Cup champ who will be forced to a backup.

Logano will use his Bud Shootout car as a backup, which he said could be even better.

“It’s disappointing is the biggest thing,” he said. “If it was something that was my fault, I’d be really mad about it. But there was nothing I could have done about it – it was straight-up junk. Am I mad? Yeah, I’m mad. But I’m not going crazy over it.”

Johnson said he had no idea what happened, but that the plan was to bring the wrecked car back to North Carolina for repairs and have it back in Daytona by Thursday in case of a wreck in the Gatorade Duel.

The No. 48 car didn’t show major damage after he made contact with the back of a slowing Hamlin, but Johnson said repairs were necessary.

“When I hit the back of the 11, it kind of shifted the nose over and kind of rolled it up,” Johnson said. “We can beat it back into place, but there’s just no guarantees we can fix it right and 100 percent.”

Crew chief Chad Knaus said the backup car was used in the Bud Shootout last week (although Johnson said it was far too loose and needed to be tightened) and the same car that finished second at Daytona last July.