He is one of the more colorful new faces in the NASCAR garage, and as soon as he opens his mouth and speaks you know that he's not from around here.

So Marcos Ambrose, driver of the No. 47 Toyota for JTG/Daugherty Racing, sat down with NASCAR.COM recently and explained a few things about his native Australia.

Roughage and ready

That wasn't a PR person delivering snacks to the Atlanta media center Sunday morning -- it was driver Marcos Ambrose, who provided reporters with Little Debbie brownies shaped like his No. 47 Toyota race car.

"I baked them myself," Ambrose quipped, as he handed out the boxes.

Asked whether the brownies contained Vegemite, a popular Australian cracker spread, Ambrose laughed. "No, it's koala fur," joked the driver from Down Under. "That's the roughage."

-- Sporting News Wire Service

Q: For us American novices, what in the heck is Vegemite?

Ambrose: It's toxic. You've got to warm up to it. It can cause you a lot of pain if you're a novice at eating it. But my little girls -- I have a 1 1/2-year-old and a 3-year-old -- they love it and eat it every day. It's an acquired taste; it's a yeast extract. If you're not used to it, it doesn't taste too good. But there is something in it that's quite addictive, and Australians really are brought up on Vegemite. Wherever I travel, I carry my Vegemite with me.

Q: Is it a spread?

Ambrose: It's a spread, like peanut butter. The English had their version of it, and the Australians have modified it over the years. Now we have our own version, and that's Vegemite. It's an Australian classic. It's really a way of life for us. Everybody has Vegemite on toast for breakfast. It's a sweet-salty taste. There is something in there that brings you back. Once you've enjoyed it -- if you didn't have a bad experience with it -- you'll keep coming back.

(At this point, Ambrose actually produces a jar of the stuff -- which looks like, um, dark brown spreadable chocolate, and organizes a taste test, spreading it over a toasted English muffin after first laying down a generous layer of butter).

Q: So this is it, huh? Is this stuff good for you?

Ambrose: It's got the world's highest source of Vitamin B. You've got to wait for the right moment. You can't brush your teeth before having Vegemite. You have to get bloody right for it. You've got to be in the right environment. You've got to have the right drink for it.

Q: What would that be, beer?

Ambrose: No, not beer. A cup of coffee or a cup a tea. It's usually a breakfast thing.

Q: I just remember that one song years ago by the band Men At Work, where they come from the Land Down Under and talk about having a Vegemite sandwich ...

Ambrose: That's it. I know people that will spread it on a roast, on like raw beef, and then cook it.

“

We look up to America as a country. We value your way of life, and your bad TV, too.

”

MARCOS AMBROSE

Q: So it's got many purposes?

Ambrose: Oh, yeah, it's got multiple uses. I know people that will put it into a cup of hot water and drink it like tea.

Q: What's your favorite way to eat it?

Ambrose: I put it on toast, with a bit of butter. I put it on cheese, too, and make a sandwich out of it. But one of the best things about it is it's got a shelf life of 35 years. It's like cake uranium [laughing].

Q: How is this stuff made?

Ambrose: It's all the yeast extract from the beer floatation. The yeast sits on top. They skim it all off, they dry it and process it and burn it until it goes black. Then they squeeze it through a tube and there it is.

Q: If it's made from beer, no wonder so many people like it. But Vegemite isn't the only thing you miss about Australia. What else?

Ambrose: I miss friends and family. It's a big commitment to come over here and chase a dream like this. Australians have a unique way of life. We're pretty laid back, and we have a good lifestyle down there. We have a massive wealth for the middle population. Most people have got two cars, a house and a boat -- and their weekends. There's a lot of family, a lot of sun, a lot of surf. Sporting is massive down there. I miss my family, mostly. My parents aren't getting any younger, and every year I'm away I feel like it's another year I'm not getting to spend with them. But there are sacrifices all the way along. It's for the greater good. I'm doing something special and unique.

Q: Other than not understanding Vegemite, what else do most Americans perhaps not understand about Australians?

Ambrose: I guess the biggest misconception is that everyone that sounds Australian knows one another. It's a big country, as big as America. (Actually, the United States is comprised of roughly 3.71 million square miles to Australia's 2.94 million square miles). We don't have a huge population. We do a lot of things on our own and we're very independent. We had to make our own stuff for so many years because it used to take boats and airplanes like three months to get out there, and you couldn't just go buy everything off a shelf. So the Australian people are quite ingenious. We're quite stubborn, and just willing to go that extra bit.

I think that's why even though Australia's population is quite small, we produce a lot of excellent athletes and engineers and innovators because of that isolation that we had for so many years. ... As far as on the racing side, we build our own race cars. We build 'em from scratch. We build our own motors. Some of the greatest innovators in motorsports came from either Australia or New Zealand.

Q: Through the years, has Australia become more like America?

Ambrose: We've got all your bad TV channels, all your bad network comedies. So we're as American as a lot of other countries, now. ... We look up to America as a country. We look to you guys to save our butts in case we get ourselves in trouble down there militarily. We value your way of life, and your bad TV, too. We've only got five channels down there, so we get the worst of the worst. At least here you can spread the bad shows out over more channels.

Q: And now you're bringing Vegemite into our country?

Ambrose: Sure. Kraft even makes it. You might have to go to a special shop to get it, though.

Joe Menzer is the author of "The Great American Gamble: How the 1979 Daytona 500 Gave Birth to a NASCAR Nation." Click here to purchase.