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Ambrose: Uncertain future

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Marcos Ambrose and Robby Gordon aren't two names that you'd normally think of as being favourites to win a NASCAR race, but these road racers are being tipped to thrive at Watkins Glen.

At Sonoma, Ambrose was in the lead last in the race, but shut off his car to conserve fuel.

Unluckily for him, he stalled. When he managed to restart the car and tried to get his place back, race officials disagreed and put him in seventh place for "failing to maintain speed".

Ambrose has won three Nationwide races at the track, and finished second and third in his last two Cup outings. He'll be expected to be quite a handful at the Helluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at the Glen race on Sunday afternoon.

"Everyone's expecting a big weekend," Ambrose told the US media. "We've got good road course packages. That's our bread and butter."

Ambrose recently announced that he would be leaving JTG Daughtery racing at the end of the year. He has said that he will consider either a return to his native Australia or with another team - with Richard Petty Motorsports rumoured to be a possible destination.

"I would like to continue in NASCAR and finish off what I started, but I have not discounted returning to Australia," he said in a recent announcement.

And although it would make everybody in the NASCAR world happy to see the friendly Australian celebrating in pit lane, Robby Gordon will be a frightening prospect for his Cup competitors.

"I love coming to Watkins Glen (International) every year," he said. "As an organisation, we always focus on this race and put a huge effort behind our preparation because we know it's a race that where we have a good chance to win."

Sand traps

Four-time champion Jeff Gordon (no relationship to Robby) says that one of the best decisions Watkins Glen's owners have made is to change sand traps for concrete - meaning that mistakes into the sand won't mean long cautions.

"I love what they've done with the pavement (where the sand traps used to be)," Gordon, who has four wins at the track, said. "I think you're going to see a race that is more entertaining because we don't have to sit there and pull cars out of the sand trap.

"There's always a penalty for going off the racing surface. The penalty in the past was more severe and I think it actually took away from the racing.

"For safety reasons, the options now are better because we can 'drive through' a mistake. If a driver made a mistake in the past and ended up in the sand, it would take six laps under caution to get the car out of there."

One of the drivers with a history at Watkins Glen is Juan Pablo Montoya. He was famously wrecked by 2006 race winner Kevin Harvick with 20 laps to go in 2007, and nearly came to blows with the Richard Childress Racing driver.

The Colombian driver will be in serious need of getting a strong result at Watkins Glen to give him any hope of a place in the Chase in four races' time.

Also praying for a good finish after a string of poor starts will be Dale Earnhardt Jr, who has had an awful car for the past two races, helping to send him tumbling down the standings.

He's over 100 points behind 12th-place Clint Bowyer and 105 points behind Hendrick Motorsports team-mate Mark Martin, who had a strong finish at Pocono last week.