Ambrose, Wood in prime position heading to AMS

Marcos Ambrose didn't expect this kind of start. He's new to NASCAR, new to racing on ovals, new to America.

Then again, neither did Jon Wood -- and motor oil has pumped through his veins since birth.

By the Numbers

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Ambrose and Wood are in their biggest transitional year of racing. Ambrose, an Australia native who flourished in sports cars, made a one-year dip in the Truck Series to wet his pallet and is now going full-bore in the Busch Series. Wood, in his third year of full-time Busch racing, made his Cup Series debut last week and plans to run half the Cup schedule this year.

And oh yeah, they're both on the same team and they're both sitting in the top 10 in points.

"To be in the top 10 in the points at this stage was something for us to aim for at the start of the season, so to be in the top 10 is a great effort by this team and everyone involved," said Ambrose, who is fifth at 166 points behind leader Carl Edwards. "To be in the top five is incredible."

Ambrose is coming off an eight-place finish at Mexico City, sort of a home race for him in that he comes from a road-course racing background. He followed that up with a 10th-place finish last week at Las Vegas, just his fifth top-10 finish on an oval since making the jump to NASCAR (he had four in the Truck Series last year).

But don't let Ambrose fool you. His five top-10s have all been on 1.5-mile ovals with similar configurations: Kansas (third), Nashville (third), Las Vegas (seventh and 10th) and Texas (10th). Lucky for him, Saturday's Nicorette 300 (2:30 p.m. ET, ABC) is on the 1.5-mile, doglegged Atlanta Motor Speedway, where he finished 16th in the Truck race last spring.

"This weekend in Atlanta we are going to a track that I aced at in the Truck Series, but the Busch Series is a different thing," Ambrose admitted. "We were running three-wide on the banking in the truck last year and the Busch cars should be similar. That's going to be really something so you've really got to remind yourself not to get carried away and make sure you get to the finish.

"It's going to be tough, but I think the Atlanta track will put on a good race."

Ambrose has that right, sort of. (Continued)