MOTORSPORT: Wretched day Stateside for Aussies

Marcos Ambrose was 20th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup race on the tricky tri-oval at Pocono, Pennsylvania, but that series now heads to the Watkins Glen road course in upstate New York for perhaps Ambrose's best chance to win a race in the big league of American stock car racing.

This year's Ferrari performs much better on softer tyres. Teams have to use two compounds during each grand prix. Pirelli has said it will not use the hard compound in the next three GPs -- at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, Monza in Italy and at the Singapore night race. And Pirelli motorsport boss Paul Hembery told Autosport the hard compound was unlikely to return this season.

"I don't think we'll see the hard compound again," Hembery said. "I think it's probably too hard and the medium (compound) is proving sufficiently robust for the aggressive circuits we've still got to come. So don't think we'll be going the hard route."

Hembery also indicated to Autosport that the hardest tyre probably won't be used at all next season, with a new compound -- between the medium and the soft -- likely to be introduced. The news is likely to arouse suspicions of favoritism towards Ferrari by the Italian tyre manufacturer -- which some in F1 had feared as soon as it succeeded Bridgestone as the monopoly supplier in the sport.

Ferrari is a distant third in the constructors' championship this year with 215 points -- 168 behind Red Bull-Renault, for which Sebastian Vettel has won six GPs this season, while McLaren-Mercedes, with four wins (two each by Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button), is 103 points behind Red Bull but 65 ahead of the Italian team.

Despite the disparity in those scores, Pirelli's rubber has been widely acclaimed for having added greatly to the F1 spectacle and Red Bull's early season advantage has been narrowed in any case, with Vettel winning only one of the past five GPs -- and Australia's Mark Webber without a win all season.

It was two-time series champion Dixon's 26th Indy victory. Power went into the 12th round of the season 38 points behind Franchitti but, while still second, now finds himself 62 points in arrears and with Dixon 31 points behind him with six races remaining -- four of them at tracks new to the series.

After the bad blood between the top two drivers last month, which began with Power accusing Franchitti at Toronto of dirty driving, the pair touched again today on the opening lap. This time it was Scotsman Franchtti pointing the finger at Power for the contact as they fought for third position. Neither lost a place but in-car footage from Power's car showed his right front wheel touch Franchitti's rear left as he went up the inside into turn five.

"Good points day for us, despite Will's best efforts at the start there to spin me around," Franchitti said later. "He hit me twice on the first lap -- pretty hard actually. He didn't get [spin] me all the way around but he had a good try at it."

Power admitted he hit Franchitti's car, but called it a racing incident. "I was just trying to get past him at the start -- he went around the outside and I think I hit his back wheel ... sort of similar to Toronto. I'm just racing, that's all."

Power opted to stay out a lap longer than Franchitti for a pitstop but that backfired when the safety car emerged. As the Ganassi pair stormed to a quinella, Ryan Hunter-Reay took third place, Takuma Sato fourth and Tony Kanaan fifth.

Power, who had started fourth, said: "Today was tough. The car was fast even while I was saving fuel. We were making great fuel mileage and we were going to go a lap or two longer than the leaders on the second stop, which would have put us in great position to challenge for the race lead in the last stint. Basically, we suffered for doing a great job of driving a smart race. We just got caught out by that last yellow flag."

Briscoe, who won at Mid-Ohio in 2008, had qualified alongside Dixon and held second place during the first stint until a problem changing a tyre during his first pit stop dropped him to seventh. He battled back to the pointy end of the field but then he and Power were caught out by the full-course caution on lap 57.

"We were just really unlucky," said Briscoe, who had dropped from sixth to seventh in the championship. "In the first stint the car was able to stay with Dixon, we were saving fuel and we were pretty comfortable. Our first pit stop hurt us, but we were still in good shape.

"We did a good job saving fuel -- I think Will and I were able to go farther than everyone else -- but we just got caught out by the yellow flag. In the end, that's what really hurt us. It's just really frustrating. We had a great car today -- a winning car -- but we just caught a tough break."

The IndyCar series continues next weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

IndyCar championship standings after 12 of 18 rounds -- 1. Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) 428 points, 2. Will Power (Penske) 366, 3. Scott Dixon (Ganassi) 335, 4. Tony Kanaan (KV) 283, 5. Oriol Servia (Newman-Haas) 268, 6. Marco Andretti (Andretti Autosport) 256, 7. Ryan Briscoe (Penske) 253, 8. Graham Rahal (Gansassi) 230, 9. Helio Castroneves (Penske) 224, 10. J.R. Hildebrand (Panther) 222, 11. Alex Tagliani (Schmidt) 214, 12. Takuma Sato (KV) 212, 13. Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti) 211, 14. Vitor Meira (Foyt) 209, 15. Danica Patrick (Andretti) 207.

In holding off a charging Kyle Busch in the closing laps and taking the third victory of his Sprint Cup career, Keselowski became a strong challenger for The Chase -- the contest among top drivers for the title over the final 10 rounds.

Although he is still only 18th in the championship, five places ahead of Australian Marcos Ambrose, Keselowski -- reigning champion in the second-tier Nationwide Series -- is well-placed to earn one of the two wildcards introduced for The Chase this season. He is the only driver between 10th and 20th in the points with two victories this year.

The Pocono race was strung out for more than five hours after it was stopped for 100 minutes because of rain. Kyle Busch stormed back into contention in his Toyota after causing the first of the day's four cautions by spinning on lap 14. In finishing second he was in a Dodge "sandwich" between his brother Kurt, another Penske driver, and Keselowski. 

Five-time champion Jimmie Johnson was fourth, Ryan Newman fifth and Jeff Gordon sixth -- that trio all in Chevrolets -- ahead of series leader Carl Edwards, who extended his contract with Ford team Roush Fenway Racing on the eve of his 250th Cup start. Edwards' new multi-year deal came after months of speculation of him switching teams and manufacturers, perhaps to the Joe Gibbs/Toyota outfit.

Ambrose said he had to "fight and gouge" all day just for 20th at Pocono, but the trip to Watkins Glen will brighten his spirits.

NASCAR Sprint Cup after 21 of 36 rounds -- 1. Carl Edwards (Ford) 720 points, 2. Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 711, 3. Kyle Busch (Toyota) 709, 4. Kurt Busch (Dodge) 706, 5. Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet) 700, 6. Matt Kenseth (Ford) 694, 7. Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) 668, 8. Ryan Newman (Chevrolet) 658, 9. Tony Stewart (Chevrolet) 642, 10. Dale Earnhardt Junior (Chevrolet) 641, 11. Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 618, 12. Clint Bowyer (Chevrolet) 600.  Australia's Marcos Ambrose (Ford) is 23rd on 529 points.

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