Front row start for Ambrose at Martinsville

Marcos Ambrose will start on the front row for the STP Gas Booster 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

The Australian will share the front row with Jimmie Johnson who was just 7/1000ths quicker on the flat half-mile.

The Tasmanian was ninth of the 44 cars out on the track and set a time of 19.251 seconds (158.302 KM/h).

The Ford driver then had to sit back and watch all the stars of the Sprint Cup take their single lap runs. Johnson was towards the end of the qualifying runners and took the pole award.

“You can always say you could get more out of it, but it was a solid lap.  Our No. 9 Stanley Ford has been on a rail today,” said Ambrose.

“We had a fast car off the truck and it’s really gonna help us.”

Ambrose confident he can carry the form to the race and kick-start his season.

“Yeah, it can turn us around, no doubt,’ said Ambroe.

“We’re a great team.  We’ve got all the ingredients.  We proved today that if we get our stuff right we can do it.

“We’ve just got to get some momentum and get some confidence back.  Our little team is a tough team, but we’ve been knocked around pretty good.  It’s like we’ve gone nine rounds with Mike Tyson, but we’re coming back strong here and we won’t quit.”