Richard Petty Motorsports will continue with Ford Racing next season.
That’s great news for RPM driver Marcos Ambrose, whose “first ever paid appearance was for Ford back in 1996” when the manufacturer debuted the EB Falcon in his homeland of Australia. His family’s relationship is even longer, dating back nearly four decades through Van Diemen International, which built some of its cars on the Formula Ford chassis.
Petty's announcement is a contributing factor for Ambrose continuing his relationship with RPM. The 36-year-old Launceston, Australia native is one step closer to inking his contract extension.
“We are all squared away as far as what the expectations are on both sides and it is just a matter of finishing it off at this point,” Ambrose said. “I can’t see any reason why I wouldn’t want to be a part of Richard Petty Motorsports in 2013. There are a lot of good things to look forward to. We have built a great team and have great partners with Ford and Roush with their engine program and also the engineering support. We have the new 2013 Fusion coming out which is really exciting.
“I want to be in NASCAR. I want to be around and I want to drive for Richard Petty Motorsports. I am a big supporter of Ford and Richard Petty and the whole RPM team. They had to get their own house in order and I look forward to working with them. I want to be with Richard Petty Motorsports in 2013 and we are all working together to get that done as quickly as we can.”
Ambrose is in his second season with RPM. He joined the company after it reorganized with new partners Doug Bergeron and Andy Murstein. Ambrose delivered the current organizations first victory 22 races into the season at Watkins Glen. In 2012, Ambrose posted consecutive poles at Michigan and June and won his second Cup race at the Glen.
Ambrose barely missed an opportunity to transfer into the Chase for the Sprint Cup this season. Before the Chase began last month, RPM swapped crew chiefs – with Todd Parrott moving to Aric Almirola and Ambrose gaining Mike Ford. Ambrose is currently 18th in the point standings.
Ambrose first came to NASCAR as a guest of Ford. In 2006, he started running Ford trucks with Tad Geschickter and began his relationship with the venerable Wood Brothers shortly thereafter. Following two full seasons in the Nationwide Series JTG Racing moved to Toyota when the organization graduated to Cup full-time in 2009. After two seasons with Toyota, Ambrose was thrilled to return to Ford.
“I have a lot of reasons to be loyal to the manufacturer,” Ambrose said. “They have been fantastic to me and build incredible cars all around the world. I am lucky enough to be representing them on the race track and I want to represent them more, obviously with success. NASCAR is a tough road and has been a challenge for me at times to keep my head above water. I have had a great long-term partnership with Ford both in the U.S. and Australia and I look forward to many more years to come driving for and representing Ford.”
