Ambrose Out At Petty Enterprises, In With Penske Racing’s Supercars

Marcos Ambrose battles Jeff Gordon in 2012 at the Kobalt Tools 400 in Las Vegas. Photo by Brian Neudorff

“Today’s not the day to talk about my racing future,” said Ambrose on Saturday. “I just feel like personally, this is the right choice for myself and my family to call it a day here in the U.S., and move on to the next chapter.”

Richard Petty Motorsports (RPM) announced that Ambrose would not be returning to drive the RPM Fords in the Sprint Cup Series next season. Instead, Ambrose will be driving for Team Penske, but not in the Sprint Cup Series, and not in America. Ambrose confirmed that he will return to Australia and drive the #17 Ford Falcon for Dick Johnson Racing Team Penske in the Australian Supercar Series.

“This is a great opportunity to return home to a place that I love, in a series where I’ve experienced a lot of success,” Ambrose said. “It will be an honor to race for two motorsport legends in Roger Penske and Dick Johnson.” Full transcript of Ambrose’s interview on returning to Australia here: marcosambrose.com

Marcos Ambrose. Photo from marcosambrose.com

Ambrose began his career in the Australia Formula Ford Championship series finishing 4th in 1996 while driving for Swift Racing Cars. Returning in 1997 with his own racing team, Ambrose finished the season in second place in the series. Deciding to move into the British Formula Ford Championship and Formula Ford Euro Cup in 1999. Finishing third in the British Championship and winning the Formula Ford Euro Cup, He followed that up with a 12th and 16th place results in 2000’s French Formula Three Championship and the British Formula Three Championship respectively.

2001 marked a significant change for Ambrose when he signed on with Stone Brother’s Racing to drive their Ford Falcons in the Shell Championship series. Ambrose finished in 8th place with the Stone Brothers Racing team. Returning with the team for a very successful four season run in the V8 Supercar Championship Series which saw Ambrose and the Stone Brother’s racing team finish third in 2002, Series Champions in 2003 and 2004, and narrowly missing a third straight Championship in 2005.

Marcos Ambrose in Supercar at Surfers Paradise. Photo from www.wikipedia.com

Ambrose made the jump to NASCAR in 2006 joining the Craftsman Truck Series driving the Wood Brothers/JTG Ford F-150 truck before moving with the Wood’s Brothers/JTG team in the Busch Series driving their Ford Fusion to an eighth place series finish on the season. Ambrose returned with the JTG Daugherty team in 2008 in the Sprint Cup series, piloting their Ford Fusion. In 2009 and 2010, Ambrose campaigned the JTG Daugherty Toyota Camry. Ambrose moved to the Richard Petty Motorsports team for the 2011 season, where he was back in a Ford cockpit driving the RPM Fusion in the Sprint Cup Series.

From 2011 to 2014, Ambrose was a mainstay with the RPM team winning the Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen in 2011 and 2012. During his eight years in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup series, Ambrose logged 2-wins, 18-top 5s, 44-top 10s in 218-starts. He led 347 laps out of the 60,514 laps that he ran in the series.

At Chicagoland Speedway. Photo from marcosambrose.com

Ambrose stated that it was for both personal reasons for his children, and because Roger Penske was interested in expanding his Team Penske organization to start a V8 Supercar team in Australia that he took this offer to join the team. “I think I’ve accomplished all I can accomplish in NASCAR. When I came it was clear all I could do was win races and not have any chance at a championship. I’ve enjoyed my time here and I will miss my friends and the other drivers very much but this move is done mostly to help my children get raised in our native country and I feel like I want to start a new chapter in my life. I’m glad to leave with multiple wins in NASCAR and having raced for the King,” he said.

About the author

Bobby Kimbrough

Bobby grew up in the heart of Illinois, becoming an avid dirt track race fan which has developed into a life long passion. Taking a break from the Midwest dirt tracks to fight evil doers in the world, he completed a full 21 year career in the Marine Corps.
Read My Articles

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