Ambrose Has Come a Long Way Since His Last Race at Chicagoland

JOLIET, July 8, 2010: It’s hard to believe Marcos Ambrose has only competed in one NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway. It seems like he has been racing in the division for quite some time, but he’s only halfway through his second season of full-time competition as he prepares to race his No. 47 Clorox Toyota Camry in the LifeLock.com 400 on Saturday.

“Last summer was my first time at Chicagoland Speedway in a Cup car,” said Ambrose, who has 65 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts. “I only had two NASCAR Nationwide starts before that. Because we ran well, we’re looking forward to going back.”

The Australian driver delivered a respectable 11th-place finish at the 1.5-mile D-shaped tri-oval speedway in his first attempt.

“He had never raced a Cup car there and we were pleased with the outcome,” crew chief Frank Kerr said. “We had a decent car and he ran in the top-15 all day. We've come a long way since then and we are going back with one of our favorite cars."

Another strong finish will help Ambrose and his JTG Daugherty Racing team put the most recent event at Daytona International Speedway behind them.

“We were collected in the massive pileup at Daytona,” said Ambrose, who was credit with a 32nd-place finish after being knocked out of the race. “I’m just tired of being collected in accidents and it seems like it always happens when we are running in the top-15 and making forward progress. I’ve had more hard hits this season than I have experienced in my career. Each week we have a car capable of finishing in the top-10, but we can’t make it to the finish line. That’s through no fault of our own.”

Ambrose has two top-10 finishes and eight top-15 finishes this year. Out of 18 starts, he has seven DNF’s due to being collected in five accidents and a couple mechanical failures. Through all of that he has kept a positive attitude.

“I just keep reminding myself everyday how fortunate I am to have the best sponsors and be able to race cars for a living among the greatest drivers in the world,” Ambrose said. “Our luck will turn around at some point.”

Crew chief Frank Kerr is surprised by how the season has gone so far for JTG Daugherty Racing.

“We’ve crashed so much this year that it is unbelievable,” Kerr said. “It’s really not our fault. Marcos has just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Like Marcos said, our luck will turn around. Racing is like a swing and when it swings the other way you’ve got to take advantage of it and enjoy it. Right now, we’ve had several bad weeks and it’s time for us to have a lot of good runs.”

Once Chicagoland is in the books, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series has an off weekend before traveling to Indiana for the Brickyard 400. During Ambrose’s weekend off, he travels further north for his first visit to Nova Scotia to compete in the IWK 250 at Riverside International Speedway. Ambrose is racing the No. 10 Cat Car for Kids Late Model Pro Stock entry in the July 17th event on behalf of Regan Smith, who won in 2008.

“I’ll be talking to Regan to get some pointers,” Ambrose said. “It should be a lot of fun. I’m taking my family with me for a holiday too.”