OzRacingWrap

Marcos Ambrose has scored his fifth top-five result of the season, with a fifth place finish in the Bank of America 500, from the famed Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Driving the Richard Petty Motorsports Stanley Bostitch Ford Fusion, Ambrose was one of the front runners throughout the race, and overcame several late race cautions to hold down his position near the head of the field.

The result was Ambrose's third straight top-ten finish, the first time in his NASCAR Sprint Cup career he has achieved such a feat, with the points haul elevating him to 18th in the season standings.

"It was time to harden up," Marcos Ambrose said.

"We had a really good period around Watkins Glen, where we won a couple of races in a couple of weeks, but then we hit a hole.

"We just dug ourselves out of that, and we have our mojo back.

"You're racing around these Chase guys, and you've got to do the right thing.

"You don't want to change the outcome of the championship for these guys, but you want to race for your own team and try and win.

"So it was a delicate night out there, but we had a great race car."

After showing strong pace in the event's two practice sessions, setting the sixth and seventh quickest times respectively, Ambrose started the 334 lap encounter from 12th position.

The race started with a long stint of green flag running, with Ambrose stationed in 11th, however he managed to emerged from the his first pit service in eighth.

The first debris caution flashed on lap 77 with Ambrose sitting in eighth, but after a round of pit stops where several other cars only took on two tyres, he restarted from 12th position.

Ambrose passed Chase contender Denny Hamlin before further green flag stops occurred on lap 124, with the Australian merging back into action in eighth.

The yellow flag waved once again on lap 145, with Ambrose the fastest car on the race track.

Taking on another full compliment of four tyres, Ambrose restarted in eighth, but swiftly turned that into sixth before another caution debris slowed the field.

Ambrose aced the next restart to sit in fourth, which he held until a green flag stop on lap 197, which dropped him to sixth in the running order.

The caution lights flashed when Trevor Bayne's car stopped on circuit on lap 236, with Ambrose once again in fourth position prior to the stops.

Badly baulked at the restart, Ambrose managed to fight his way back into seventh, with his next stop falling as a caution appeared for the smoking car of Dave Blaney.

After initially being awarded the Lucky Dog free pass back onto the lead lap, Ambrose was eventually given a wave around, which saw him restart from the tail of the lead lap in 11th.

Ambrose's fortunes took a lucky break when a three car pile up ahead of him at the restart saw the number nine machine elevated to eighth, which became sixth when Greg Biffle brought out another caution shortly after.

Making a solid restart, Ambrose jumped to fifth, which soon became fourth when he once again overcame Hamlin.

The race took a final twist when Jimmie Johnson emerged uninjured from a horror wreck, which set up a 12 lap run to the chequered flag.

Initially down to restart from fourth, Ambrose was gifted third place on the track when Carl Edwards made an unsuccessful attempt to enter the pit lane.

On the restart, race leader Kyle Busch struggled to get traction, which started a chain reaction that slowed Ambrose, and dropped him to sixth.

In the sprint to the finish, Ambrose was able to get back past Kevin Harvick for fifth place.

The race was won by Ford driver Matt Kenseth, over Kyle Busch and Edwards.

Next week the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series returns to Super Speedway competition at Talladega.

Bank of America 500 Review - Race Results

1. Matt Kenseth (Ford)

2. Kyle Busch (Toyota)

3. Carl Edwards (Ford)

4. Kasey Kahne (Toyota)

5. Marcos Ambrose (Ford)

6. Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet)

7. A.J. Allmendinger (Ford)

8. Tony Stewart (Chevrolet)

9. Denny Hamlin (Toyota)

10. Ryan Newman (Chevrolet)

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Standings (After race 31 of 36)

1. Carl Edwards (Ford) 2203 points

2. Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet) 2198

3. Matt Kenseth (Ford) 2196

4. Kyle Busch (Toyota) 2185

5. Tony Stewart (Chevrolet) 2179

6. Brad Keselowski (Dodge) 2178

7. Kurt Busch (Dodge) 2176

8. Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 2168

9. Dale Earnhardt Jnr (Chevrolet) 2143

10. Ryan Newman (Chevrolet) 2142

18. Marcos Ambrose (Ford) 821