MOTORSPORT: Ambrose took pole position in NASCAR

However, Ambrose has gained a spot in the championship to 16th with his eighth-placed finish in an ill-handling Ford Fusion.

“We really missed it [the perfect set-up]," Ambrose said.

“We missed it bad and we did good to recover and get a top-10 out of it. We will take it and move on.

“We got the pole and had a lot of speed; we just missed it for the race. We were slow. It was just terrible. We had no speed in the car and we paid the price.”

Clint Bowyer notched his sixth Cup win, his first on a road course, and the first victory this year for Michael Waltrip Racing, under whose umbrella Ambrose raced before joining Richard Petty Motorsports.

Bowyer is the 12th winner in 16 rounds of the Cup this year, while reigning champion Tony Stewart, second at Sonoma, has finished in the top three at the past three races.

Kurt Busch, who has been embroiled in controversy recently, chalked up his best finish of the season, with third place, while fifth-placed Jimmie Johnson has had five top five finishes in the past six rounds.

Jeff Gordon, who started alongside Ambrose on the front row at Sonoma, finished sixth after running out of fuel before a pitstop.

Dale Earnhardt, who ended a four-year win drought at Michigan the previous weekend, had his worst finish of the season, 23rd, and dropped to third in the points, while Matt Kenseth leads Greg Biffle by 11 points – meaning Ford drivers are one-two in the championship.

Brazilian Nelson Piquet Junior, an innocent refugee from Formula One after the scandal around the Renault team at the original Singapore Grand Prix, won his first NASCAR race at the weekend – driving a Chevrolet in the second-tier Nationwide series at the Road America course in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

Canada's 1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, who is to race a Holden Commodore at next weekend's Townsville round of the V8 Supercar Championship, finished sixth at Road America.

Villeneuve spun Danica Patrick on the final lap, dropping her from fourth to 12th.

NASCAR Sprint Cup standings after 16 rounds –
1. Matt Kenseth (Ford) 596 points;
2. Greg Biffle (F) 585;
3. Dale Earnhardt Junior (Chevrolet) 582;
4. Jimmie Johnson (C) 571;
5. Tony Stewart (C) 533;
6. Kevin Harvick (C) 532;
7. Clint Bowyer (Toyota) 529;
8. Denny Hamlin (T) 523;
9. Martin Truex Junior (T) 520;
10. Brad Keselowski (Dodge) 490;
11. Carl Edwards (F) 479;
12. Kyle Busch (T) 459;
13. Ryan Newman (C) 453;
14. Paul Menard (C) 445;
15. Joey Logano (T) 441;
16. Marcos Ambrose (F) 425;
17. Kasey Kahne (C) 421;
18. Jeff Gordon (C) 414;
19. Jeff Burton (C) 408;
20. Jamie McMurray (C) 402;
21. Aric Almirola (F) 388;
22. Juan Montoya (C) 387.

Power's Team Penske Dallara-Chevrolet was eliminated when hit by the similar KV Racing entry of Venezuelan E.J. Viso at quarter distance.

Power later acknowledged he had made a mistake, his “spotter” not having alerted him to Viso's whereabouts.

Viso was furious with Power, saying it was the second straight race he had blocked a KV Racing driver after an incident with Brazilian Tony Kanaan at the previous round in Texas.

Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti, whose Honda engine blew before he had the chance to start from the pole position he'd earned in Iowa and has now had successive non-finishes, reckoned Viso's reaction was out of order. “E.J.'s hit everything but the pace car,” Franchitti said.

The other Australian in the race, Ryan Briscoe, felt robbed of a likely victory after rookie Josef Newgarden's Dallara-Honda hit his Team Penske car as he pulled low on the track intending to make his final scheduled pitstop while leading.

“On fuel we were in position to win,” Briscoe said.

Marco Andretti finished close behind Hunter-Reay to make it a one-two for Andretti Autosport at the one-mile (1.6km) oval where he won last year, but James Hinchcliffe, who had been second in the standings for the Andretti team, crashed at four-fifths distance and has slipped to fifth.

New Zealander Scott Dixon led the Iowa race until overtaken by Hunter-Reay, finished fourth, behind Kanaan, and is third in the series.

Frenchman Simon Pagenaud is emerging as a star in IndyCar, having completed the most laps of any driver this season and finishing fifth in Iowa.

IndyCar series standings nine of 15 races –
1. Will Power (Australia, Team Penske, Dallara-Chevrolet) 286 points,
2. Ryan Hunter-Reay (US, Andretti Autosport, Dallara-Chevrolet) 283;
3. Scott Dixon (New Zealand, Chip Ganassi Racing, Dallara-Honda) 271,
4. Helio Castroneves (Brazil, Team Penske, Dallara-Chevrolet) 261;
5. James Hinchcliffe (Canada, Andretti Autosport, Dallara-Chevrolet) 256,
6. Simon Pagenaud (France, Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports, Dallara-Honda) 246,
7. Tony Kanaan (Brazil, KV Racing, Dallara-Chevrolet) 235,
8. Dario Franchitti (Great Britain, Chip Ganassi Racing, Dallara-Honda) 216,
9. Ryan Briscoe (Australia, Team Penske, Dallara-Chevrolet) 205,
10. Graham Rahal (US, Chip Ganassi Racing, Dallara-Honda) 193

It was the Citroen superstar's fifth victory this year, the 72nd of his WRC career – and the third time he'd won in NZ.

This time Loeb finished almost half a minute ahead of Finnish teammate Mikko Hirvonen, with Ford's Norwegian ace Petter Solberg a distant third, ahead of Russia's Evgeny Novikov in another Ford and Belgium Thierry Neuville in a Citroen.

World Rally Championship driver standings after seven of 13 rounds -
1. Sebastien Loeb (France, Citroen) 145 points;
2. Mikko Hirvonen (Finland, Citroen) 107;
3. Petter Solberg (Norway, Ford) 90;
4. Mads Osberg (Norway, Ford) 80;
5. Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland, Ford) 54; 
6. Martin Prokop (Czech Republic, Ford) 36;
7. Thierry Neuville (Belgium, Citroen) 32;
8. Dani Sordo (Spain, Mini) 29;
9. Nasser Al-Attiyah (Qatar, Citroen) 23;
10. Sebastien Ogier (France, Skoda) 22.

WRC constructors' standings –
1. Citroen Total World Rally Team 237 points;
2. Ford World Rally Team 144;
3. M-Sport Ford World Rally Team 103;
4. Qatar World Rally Team 47;
5. Citroen Junior World Rally Team 42;
6. Adapta World Rally Team 27;
7. Mini WRC Team 26;
8. Brazil World Rally Team 16.

Rally New Zealand stage winners –
Sebastien Loeb 7 (stages 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13), Jari-Matti Latvala 5 (1, 10, 14, 21, 22), Mikko Hirvonen 3 (2, 6, 15), Thierry Neuville 3 (16, 17, 20), Petter Solberg 2 (9, 11), Dani Sordo 2 (18, 19).