Notebook: Ambrose has rough Saturday in Sonoma

SONOMA, Calif. -- After consistently being at or near the top of the speed charts in practices and qualifying third in his No. 47 Toyota, driver Marcos Ambrose was dealt a blow when his car blew an engine early in Saturday's final practice. He will now have to start in the rear of the field for Sunday's SaveMart 350.

"It blew up pretty good," Ambrose told SPEED TV. "It's a real shame for us. ... We'll have to do it the tough way now and come from the back."

Sonoma Video

• No. 47 loses engine in practice
• Ambrose, Johnson tangle
• Gilliland slams into Andretti

Ambrose was able to return to the track for a couple laps at the end of final practice and had more trouble. After practice ended, Ambrose hit the rear of Jimmie Johnson's car twice.

"It was my fault -- the second lap on the track and I'm just trying to get a lap time on the board to see what we could do," Ambrose said. "I outbraked myself a little bit, bumped Jimmie and he just aborted the lap and couldn't get going. I just thought that he was going to move on, and I ran into him again."

Also dealt a potentially damaging blow during the final practice Saturday was David Gilliland, who collided with John Andretti in the pits and now will have to go to a backup car at the rear of the field Sunday.

"It was 100 percent my fault," Gilliland said. "I was exiting pit road and looked down for a brief moment to turn on my fan switches, and John stopped in front of me to let some cars go by, and I hit him," Gilliland said. "This just increases our motivation for the race. I smashed a couple of grapes on the Adobe Road Winery car this morning, so [Sunday] we will try to make some wine."

Gilliland would have started 32nd while Andretti, whom Gilliland is battling with to get into the top 35 in points, was slated to start 42nd even before the incident.

More pain ahead

The pain is far from over for Cup Series race teams, all of whom have experienced some form of budget slashing in the last year.

Speaking at Infineon Raceway on Friday, team owner Richard Childress did not rule out further cuts at Richard Childress Racing in the wake of last Wednesday's meeting with General Motors officials. Childress said each of the Chevrolet-backed Sprint Cup teams met individually with GM to talk about future funding, or lack thereof.

Reduced rate

Add RCR to the list of teams that will receive less funding as part of GM cutbacks in NASCAR.

• Video: Childress comments
• Video: Drivers comment
• Embrace foreign interest

Although Childress declined to elaborate in much specific detail, other sources in the garage confirmed that GM officials told RCR, Hendrick Motorsports and Stewart-Haas Racing to expect significant cuts in manufacturer assistance in the future, while Earnhardt Ganassi Racing possibly will be cut off from GM altogether.

Everyone stressed that while many questions continue to be asked, few concrete answers can be provided as GM moves through the bankruptcy process and reorganizes its company.

"We're going to have to make cuts like everybody in the sport or in the business," Childress said. "We really don't know what it's going to take to get us to the level [we need]. We don't want to cut performance for sure; we're not going to cut performance. We'll cut a lot of other things before that."

Childress stressed that GM's Chevy presence in the sport is not going to go away, adding that he expects to learn more after additional future meetings with GM officials.

"We're partners. You know this is RCR's 40th year," Childress said. "We've been with General Motors for 40 years. And I'm excited about hopefully our company having another 40 with them."

On the fly

As soon as the final Cup practice ended Saturday, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch were on airplanes to fly to Milwaukee for Saturday night's Nationwide Series race, where they are battling each other, and others, for that championship.

Edwards said he and Busch discussed going together, but in the end Edwards opted to fly with team owner Jack Roush of Roush Fenway Racing. He hoped to get to Milwaukee right before the race started -- hopefully a little earlier than when Denny Hamlin attempted to make a race at Milwaukee in 2007.

"I think we were on pace laps there and I remember seeing Denny's helicopter kind of hovering like they were going to land -- and then they didn't," Edwards recalled. "I thought, 'Man, that's terrible.' And then he ended up winning the race."

Actually, Aric Almirola was credited for the victory after subbing for Hamlin in the driver's seat at the beginning of the race. But Edwards' point is valid.

"So I don't think even missing the beginning of the race is the worst thing," he said. "For us, it would be the points that would be bad. But it worked out for him that night."

Overheard

When NASCAR legend Hershel McGriff narrowly failed to make the field for Saturday's Camping World West race at Infineon, getting bumped by drivers who got in via provisionals, someone said, "Yeah, that's probably the first time he's failed to qualify for anything in his life. The car must not have been right."

No offense. But couldn't it also have had something to do with the fact that Mr. McGriff is now 81 years old, too?

Sporting News Wire Service contributed to this report.