Third row start for Ambrose at Darlington

Australia’s Marcos Ambrose will start the Showtime Southern 500 at the famed Darlington Raceway in South Carolina from sixth position.

Pole was won by Kasey Kahne in the Red Bull Toyota with Ryan Newman (Stewart-Haas Racing) to share the front row.

Ambrose set his qualifying time on the final of his two timed laps in his Ford Fusion.

“I knew what I needed to do on that second lap, but I just wasn’t sure I was gonna be able to do it,” said the Tasmanian.

“I was basically wide-open through turns one and two and the car stuck.  I’m just so proud of my Stanley team and everybody at Richard Petty Motorsports.  It’s just a really good moment for us and something we can reflect on and be proud of.”

‘The Track too tough to Tame’ Darlington is also known as ‘The Lady in Black’ with each end of the oval track a different shape. At some stage in the race each driver is expected to scrape the wall and earn a ‘Darlington Stripe’ on the side of the car and leave a black tyre mark on the fence.

The Showtime Southern 500 will be run 9am Sunday morning Eastern Australian time.

QUALIFYING RESULTS: Showtime Southern 500 – Darlington

Pos	Driver	Speed / MPH	Time
1	Kasey Kahne	181.254	27.13
2	Ryan Newman	180.429	27.26
3	Denny Hamlin	180.132	27.30
4	Carl Edwards	179.980	27.32
5	Jeff Gordon	179.829	27.35
6	Marcos Ambrose	179.671	27.37
7	A.J. Allmendinger	179.448	27.40
8	Brian Vickers	179.259	27.43
9	Tony Stewart	179.108	27.46
10	Brad Keselowski	179.082	27.46
11	David Ragan	179.076	27.46
12	Jamie McMurray	178.880	27.49
13	Kevin Harvick	178.588	27.54
14	Kyle Busch	178.445	27.56
15	Bobby Labonte	178.381	27.57
16	Juan Pablo Montoya	178.264	27.59
17	Joey Logano	178.161	27.60
18	Paul Menard	178.103	27.61
19	Jimmie Johnson	178.038	27.62
20	Matt Kenseth	177.993	27.63
21	Travis Kvapil	177.987	27.63
22	Greg Biffle	177.955	27.63
23	Regan Smith	177.871	27.65
24	Jeff Burton	177.826	27.65
25	Kurt Busch	177.755	27.66
26	Clint Bowyer	177.723	27.67
27	Landon Cassill	177.672	27.68
28	Mark Martin	177.614	27.69
29	Martin Truex Jr.	177.083	27.77
30	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	176.720	27.83
31	J.J. Yeley	176.682	27.83
32	Casey Mears	176.391	27.88
33	TJ Bell	176.239	27.90
34	Mike Skinner	176.201	27.91
35	Tony Raines	176.189	27.91
36	David Reutimann	176.125	27.92
37	David Gilliland	175.472	28.02
38	David Stremme	175.409	28.04
39	Michael McDowell	175.353	28.04
40	Ken Schrader	175.291	28.05
41	Dave Blaney	174.229	28.22
42	Robby Gordon	174.167	28.24
43	Joe Nemechek	174.600	28.16
44	Scott Riggs	174.093	28.25
45	Andy Lally	171.866	28.61
46	Brian Keselowski	170.892	28.78