Ambrose Joins List of NASCAR's Greatest Mistakes

On Wednesday's episode of Showtime's "Inside NASCAR," Marcos Ambrose shows how incredibly distraught he was after giving away his first Sprint Cup win Sunday at Infineon Raceway.

"I really would like to be in a cave right now, hiding from everybody," Ambrose said.

Certainly, such is a natural feeling for a guy who lost the race after shutting his engine down under caution to save fuel that, as it would turn out, would be unnecessary. The engine wouldn't immediately re-fire for Ambrose, and NASCAR moved him out of the lead due his failure to keep pace with the caution car.

"It stinks. We gave away my first race victory for my team and for myself," Ambrose said in the episode. "To get to victory lane is such a burden on us right now and we just gave away a golden opportunity."

Opportunities to win in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series are quite rare even for the typical chosen few who lead the sport. But having said that, Ambrose wasn't the first to see the pending checkered flag drop completely out of sight thanks to a late mistake.

Here's some of the most memorable late losses and mistakes in NASCAR history:

Mark Martin Stops a Little Early

Under NASCAR's old rules, if a late yellow flag waved the race could easily finish under caution. Such was the exact case for Mark Martin in 1994 during a Busch Series (today's Nationwide Series) event at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Martin took the white flag behind the pace car and needed to simply ride around for another lap to take the checkered flag. Instead, Martin pulled off in turn four and headed to pit road -- giving second-place David Green the win.

Montoya's Excessive Speed Eliminates Brickyard Win

Juan Pablo Montoya was far and away the class of the field during the 2009 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. After taking the lead on lap five, Montoya would lead 116 of the 160 laps that day and came to pit road for the final time nursing a huge lead over second place.

The pit stop was sufficient, but Montoya's speed in the pits wasn't. NASCAR penalized Montoya for being mere 10ths of a mile per hour faster than NASCAR's pit road speed limit -- despite the adamant, vocal objections by Montoya. The No. 42 finished 11th.

Allison, Yarborough gift wrap '79 Daytona Win

In what may well be the most replayed NASCAR finish in history, the ending of the 1979 Daytona 500 is noted for its crash and fight among the leaders on the last lap that gave the win to Richard Petty. It was NASCAR's first race carried flag-to-flag on live television, with ratings buoyed by a massive snowstorm in the Northeast.

It also serves as an excellent example of a late-race mistake stealing the win for not one, but two drivers. Had Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough managed to not wreck one another, one of the two would have easily won the race. Instead, their late-race antics left both finishing back in the pack with fists-a-flyin'.

Kenseth in the pits after pit road mistake

A year removed from winning his first Sprint Cup championship, Matt Kenseth was again a solid contender for the title despite the new "Chase for the Championship" 10-race format. In the second race at Dover, Kenseth made himself an early favorite by leading 58 laps.

Running in the top five, Kenseth came to pit road on lap 120 only to make a tremendous error on Dover's notoriously tricky pit road. The No. 17 slid sideways and then head on into the water barrels protecting the end of the pit road wall -- ending his day as Ryan Newman's chief in-race competition. (Incident at 3:20 in video)