Marcos Ambrose will travel to Chicagoland Speedway with new faces on his Stanley team this weekend. Mike Ford, previously Aric Almirola’s crew chief, will now be at the helm of the No. 9 team. In addition, team members from the No. 43 Cup car will also make the switch with Ford. With new team in tow, Ambrose will look for a win this weekend at Chicago as he is set to make his fourth-career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start at the 1.5-mile track.
The Australian native’s best finish (11th) and his best start (10th) came in 2009. He has completed 799 of 801 laps attempted at the Illinois track. Ambrose enters this weekend’s 400-mile race in 15th place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings.
Ambrose’s car will have a different look this weekend as Stanley will return as the primary partner of the No. 9 Ford Fusion.
Don’t forget to tune into Sirius XM Radio on Channel 90, Friday, at 10 a.m. ET for the Morning Drive with Pete Pistone and Mike Bagley to listen to Marcos talk about racing at Chicagoland Speedway and his new crew changes.
Marcos Ambrose’s Thoughts on Racing at Chicago: “I’m ready to get to Chicago and work with my new team for the first time this weekend. We’ve made some big changes at Richard Petty Motorsports this week and I’m excited to see what the future holds. Now that the ‘Chase’ contenders have been decided, our main focus is to improve upon our program, go out and win races, and look to build momentum for 2013. We’ve got 10 weeks left in the season and I’m still looking for my first oval win. We’ve got some tracks coming up on the schedule that I’ve run really well at earlier this year, and hopefully we can go out and get victory No. 2 soon. We’ve had good runs on the intermediate tracks this year and I expect much of the same this weekend. We had a rough weekend in Richmond and I’m ready to put that behind me and go out and focus on a win on Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway.”
Comments from Crew Chief Mike Ford on Working with Ambrose and Going to Chicago: “Marcos is a driver who has proven to win poles and races. Our goal is to take my experiences and make sure we can consistently run up front and continue to win races. I feel like he’s at a point where he can win races not just on road courses, but ovals as well. I absolutely think Marcos can win a race before the year is over and that is exactly what we are going to try and do, starting this weekend. We want to close out this season with another win or two. I believe Marcos can do it and I believe our race team can do it. He’s on the verge of another win, we just need to get the stars to align in our favor. We’ve pinpointed a few races where he runs exceptionally well, and we are especially going to focus on those racetracks for the remainder of the year. Chicago is going to be a bit of a learning curve for us as we get to know each other, but I don’t think the transition will take long. I expect to go out and run well this weekend with no interruptions to No. 9 Stanley Ford’s on-track performance at Chicagoland.”
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