Cup career winds down as driver readies for Australian adventure
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AVONDALE, Ariz. — He arrived with “a backpack and a duffle bag,” and leaves as one of 124 drivers to win multiple races in NASCAR’s premier series.
With the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup battle raging on — a field of eight will be trimmed in half here this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway — Marcos Ambrose begins to ease his way out of the series.
Next week’s Ford Ecoboost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway will be the final race of the season and the final Sprint Cup start for the 38-year-old. A NASCAR career that began in 2006 in the Camping World Truck Series will end behind the wheel of the No. 9 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford in Sprint Cup.
The day after the race at Homestead, Ambrose will return to Australia where he and his family will reside. He’ll also begin preparations to compete in the V8 Supercar Series “down under” for owners Roger Penske and Dick Johnson.
“I don’t know what it’s going to be like when I get the checkered flag at Homestead,” Ambrose said Saturday at PIR. “I’m sure it’s going to have a bittersweet feeling to it, but I’ve got a lot to look forward to and a lot of good friends and people to say goodbye to.
“It’s been fun the last few weeks, but I want to try and run as good as I can these last couple of races and leave on the right note … leave showing that I had really good pace and that I left with my A-game on.”
Considered by many in NASCAR to be the most talented road racer in the series, Ambrose won seven times on road courses — twice in Sprint Cup and five times in the Nationwide Series. With two races remaining, he has 18 top-five and 45 top-10 finishes in Sprint Cup.
The last four seasons have seen him compete for RPM, and celebrating in Victory Lane with team owner Richard Petty, the series’ most recognizable and successful driver, remains one of his most cherished memories.
“Probably having the King in Victory Lane with me was just an amazing thing,” Ambrose said of victories at Watkins Glen in 2011 and 2012. “To get to know the Petty family personally and to experience Victory Lane with Richard was just incredible.
“Winning a race is great, but sharing it with the King was pretty special.”
Currently 23rd in points, Ambrose failed to qualify for the Chase during his NASCAR career, just missing this year when he finished second at Watkins Glen, where a victory would have given him one of the 16 original spots in the field.
In spite of his lack of success on the ovals and his failure to make the Chase, Ambrose described his tenure in NASCAR as “nothing but a success.”
“I really came over with a lot of ambition and determination and managed to make it in a country that has some incredible talent,” he said. “There are some great drivers all the away from short track racing at the local level all the way through the Sprint Cup Series. I got my breaks along the way and made the most of them and I’m just really, really pleased to have made it.”
The affiliation with Penske, who fields Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series teams, sparked early speculation that Ambrose could return to the United States at some point, perhaps to run the occasional NASCAR road-course event.
“I get asked that a lot,” he said, “but I really don’t have any plans to come back at this point.
“You never obviously completely close the book like that, but I’m really focused and excited to be going to the Australian V8 Supercar Series and I want to do that properly for Roger Penske and Dick Johnson.”
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