Spotter's Stand: Allmendinger, Ambrose Flew Under Richmond Radar

Filed under: A.J. Allmendinger, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Chase for the Sprint Cup, Sprint Cup, NASCARThe night is usually reserved for putting the spotlight on who will contend for the Sprint Cup championship over the next 10 races. Two unlikely names finished in the top 10 at Richmond Saturday, however, and were left out of the limelight despite strong and somewhat surprising performances.

Marcos Ambrose ended with a fifth-place finish -- just his second of the 2010 season -- while A.J. Allmendinger had to hang out to a loose race car at the end to finish eighth. at the Sprint Cup race at Richmond International Raceway.

Ambrose has two straight top-10 runs on Richmond's 3/4-mile D-shaped oval, improving on his ninth-place run in May.

"It was hard out there racing with the contenders for The Chase, I wanted to run hard, but at the same time I didn't want to ruin their championship," Ambrose said. "In the past two weeks we have been a contender on two different types of oval tracks, which is gratifying." Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

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