Struggling Ford Teams Impress at Infineon
Written by Tiffany Ricardo · June 27, 2008
So much has been said about what struggling teams like the Wood Brothers and Yates Racing need to do to be competitive again. The answer, it seems, is to run on road courses every week.
The aptly named David Gilliland, driving a Ford for Yates Racing, bested a field full of Goliaths to score a career-best second place finish. Of course, he has a lot of experience at the track, and no one seems to remember that he finished in the top ten at Infineon last year as well. However, with giants like Hendrick, Gibbs, And Roush dominating the landscape, it is amazing that an underfunded team with a few part-time sponsors can run so well anywhere.
You would think that the road course program at the smaller teams would be one of the first things to fall by the wayside as the Cup series only visits these tracks twice per year, and they require different cars, additional testing, and a very different approach for seemingly little payoff. However, both Yates and another underfunded but resilient team completely disproved that theory last weekend.
Marcos Ambrose, driving for the Wood Brothers, also had an extremely impressive showing until a broken gear box ended his day early. He was consistently one of the fastest cars on the track all day, however, which is highly unusual for the 21 car. It’s sad to say, but Ambrose’s pole and good run at Infineon will likely be the highlight of the team’s season. It’s tough to watch legendary teams fall.
However, Ambrose may just breathe new life into the organization. It looks as though the Woods were impressed as they’ve decided that Ambrose will drive again this weekend at New Hampshire. It’s always risky for this team not to have the past champion provisional on which to fall back, but they seem confident that Marcos Ambrose can get the job done.
Here’s hoping that nothing breaks, they actually qualify, and they can begin the slow climb out of the abyss of 36th in owner’s points and beyond.
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