Marcos Ross Ambrose (born 1 September 1976) is an Australian former racing driver and current Garry Rogers Motorsport competition director. He won the Australian V8 Supercar series' championship in 2003 and 2004.
In 2006, Ambrose relocated to the United States to pursue racing in NASCAR, starting with the Craftsman Truck Series. He moved up to the Nationwide Series in 2007, and later the Sprint Cup Series in 2008. He is known in NASCAR for having won a total of six races at Watkins Glen International. In the Sprint Cup Series, he won at the Glen in 2011 and 2012, and in the Nationwide Series, he won at the Glen in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2014. He is the first Australian driver to win in the highest level of NASCAR.
Early life Ambrose grew up in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia, the son of another racing driver, Ross Ambrose and was educated at Scotch Oakburn College. He began racing karts at the age of ten. He won four Tasmanian state junior karting titles and was the Australian karting champion in 1995 in the Clubman Heavy class at the Dubbo circuit in New South Wales. He moved into Formula Ford in 1996. Ambrose finished second in the Australian Formula Ford championship in 1997.
In 1998, Ambrose moved to Europe in a bid to reach Formula One, competing in British Formula Ford in 1998 and 1999. In 1999, he won the European Formula Ford Championship. In 2000, he began the season racing in the French Formula Three Championship, before switching mid-season to the British Formula Three Championship.
At the end of 2000. Ambrose did not have the budget to continue in racing in Europe, and returned to Australia. In October 2000, he was invited to compete in a Young Guns invitational race held at the Gold Coast Indy 300. Ambrose won against a host of young drivers in Honda road cars.
He also represented Australia in the 1996 EFDA Nations Cup at Donington Park in England.
V8 Supercars 2001–2005
For 2001, Ambrose was signed by Stone Brothers Racing to drive a Ford Falcon AU. Ambrose stunned the Supercars Championship world when he qualified on pole on debut, at the Australian Grand Prix support race. He qualified on pole again for round three at Eastern Creek, round nine at Queensland Raceway and round 11, the Bathurst 1000, where he became the first rookie to take pole position since 1987.
Ambrose went on to finish eighth in the championship, winning the Rookie of the Year award. He won the fourth round of the season, at Hidden Valley Raceway, although he did not win any of the three races in the round.
In 2002, Ambrose started the season winning pole position at Phillip Island before recording his debut race win in the first race. He eventually finished third in the championship, including winning the final round at Sandown.
With a new Falcon BA, Ambrose gave the Ford team a great start to the 2003 season with victory in the first race of the Clipsal 500. He followed this up with a third career win at Eastern Creek. After thirteen rounds in the 2003 V8 Supercar Series, Ambrose was presented with the driver's series trophy, 102 points clear of second place.
In 2004, Ambrose claimed three pole positions and five round wins and went into the final round at Eastern Creek with a virtually unbeatable lead. In the end he collected his second championship in the opening Saturday night race and then went on to clean-sweep the round in record-breaking style in his Pirtek Falcon. Teammate Russell Ingall finished second in the championship, giving Stone Brothers Racing a 1–2 Quinella finish. The late part of the season was highlighted by an altercation between Ambrose and Rick Kelly when Ambrose appeared to have brake-checked Kelly on purpose after a race at the Gold Coast; Ambrose was fined $10,000 for careless driving.
Ambrose won the coveted Barry Sheene Medal in 2003 and 2004.
Ambrose started 2005 with a clean sweep of the opening round in Adelaide. He remained in the championship lead and was near to winning the championship until Round 10 at the Bathurst 1000 when he was involved in a controversial crash with Greg Murphy approaching The Cutting late in the race. The two drivers walked out and argued to applause from the fans. Both of them were infuriated with one another and shared words in exchanges. Murphy said about the altecation, "He's got an ego problem that we all know about and it reared its ugly head again, and I'm just not going to put up with it". Ambrose was quoted after the race was finished with his title hopes:
This crash, combined with a poor performance on the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit possibly lost him a third straight title. He thereafter supported teammate Russell Ingall's title bid successfully, and the two helped Ford and Stone Brothers Racing take the Drivers, Teams, and Manufacturer's championships. Ambrose finished third in the championship behind Ingall and fellow Ford driver Craig Lowndes.
2015 In September 2014, it was announced that Ambrose would return to V8 Supercars to race a Ford Falcon FG X for DJR Team Penske, formed by NASCAR owner Roger Penske, who was interested in expanding his Team Penske organization to start a team in Australia and as a result merged with Dick Johnson Racing, becoming DJR Team Penske.
Ambrose started in 2015. He debuted at the final round of the 2014 season, driving the No. 66 Xbox-sponsored FG Falcon.
Ambrose began the 2015 season on a low note, starting near the back of the field in every one of the race. His best finish was twelfth in the third race at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide.
In March 2015, Ambrose took a temporary leave from DJR Team Penske in order to improve his practice with V8 Supercar racing, being replaced with Scott Pye. He returned for the three-round Pirtek Endurance Cup as Pye's second driver, claiming an eighth finish at Surfers Paradise race 1.
Ambrose did not return as a full-season driver in 2016.
NASCAR
2006 At the first V8 Supercar race of 2005, Ambrose called a press conference on the Saturday morning to announce to the top staff and fans that he would leave V8 Supercars at the end of the 2005 season to try to make a career in NASCAR.
In 2005, Ambrose signed his deal to compete under NASCAR and Ford Motor Company signed Ambrose to participate overseas in the United States with Wood Brothers/JTG Racing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in 2006 to start his career. However, Ambrose had to wait until part way through the 2006 season to begin. NASCAR did not clear Ambrose to race the NCTS' first three races, as they were held on intermediate to high-speed ovals, and like fellow Wood Brothers/JTG Racing driver Bobby East, Ambrose was not cleared to start in the faster races. Ambrose made his Truck Series debut on 1 April 2006 at the Kroger 250 at Martinsville Speedway, qualifying 20th and finishing 33rd after being caught up in an incident unfolding in front of him.
Ambrose is the first notable Australian driver in a NASCAR sanctioned event since Dick Johnson in 1990 and Australian based New Zealander Jim Richards in the mid 90s.
Ambrose made history by finishing third in the O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway on 2 July 2006. This was the first time a non-American driver has finished in the top five of a truck series event since Canadian Ron Fellows won on the Watkins Glen road course on 26 June 1999. He also took the lead in the opening laps, becoming the first Australian to lead laps in Camping World Truck Series competition. The next week, he made further history by scoring his first pole position for the Built Ford Tough 225 at Kentucky Speedway, and then leading the most laps in the race itself, though he finished 19th. Ambrose finished third in the Toyota Tundra 200 at Nashville Superspeedway after qualifying eleventh.
Ambrose reached as high as nineteenth in the championship points, but finished the season 21st overall and third in the Rookie of the Year standings, despite having missed the first three races of the year.
2007–2010 For 2007, Ambrose stepped up to the NASCAR Nationwide Series, driving the No. 59 Kingsford Ford Fusion fielded by Wood Brothers/JTG Racing. In the first two races of the 2007 season, he finished on the lead lap, in sixteenth and 25th, on tracks he had never previously raced on. In the third race of the season, the Telcel-Motorola México 200, Ambrose finished eighth, his career best at the time. having gained several positions in the last few laps of the race. He followed up his eighth place finish in Mexico City with another top-ten, finishing tenth in the Sam's Town 300 at Las Vegas. He recorded a career best Nationwide Series finish of sixth after starting third at Dover in May.
At the 2007 NAPA Auto Parts 200 Nationwide Series race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Ambrose was the dominant driver of the day, having led for 37 laps. After a caution period had finished, Ambrose had well-known Sprint Cup regular and Dakar Rally racer Robby Gordon behind him. At turn three, Gordon successfully made a pass on Ambrose and then the yellow flag came out. At the next corner, Ambrose rammed the left-rear of Gordon's car, spinning him out under yellow. Due to a caution being brought out earlier because of a large crash behind them, Gordon sped back behind Ambrose. During the caution, NASCAR officials declared that Ambrose was actually leading at the moment of caution (even though video footage appeared to show otherwise) and that Gordon had not maintained cautious pace by stopping in the middle of the race-track after the spin. Therefore, officials ordered Gordon to move back to fourteenth position for the oncoming restart, but he refused and was subsequently black-flagged. When they restarted with two laps to go, Gordon intentionally ran into the back of Ambrose at turn two, spinning him around. Although the win slipped away, Ambrose dropped down the field but recovered to finish in seventh. Following this incident, Gordon apologised and made a peace offering to Ambrose in the form of a ride for the Watkins Glen road race, in Gordon's No. 77 Camping World Ford Fusion. However, qualifying was rained out and the field was set by owner's points, and the No. 77 did not make the race.
In September, Ambrose skipped a second opportunity to drive the No. 77 car because his wife Sonja gave birth to their daughter Adelaide on the same day as the Cup race at Dover. Ambrose finished the 2007 season eighth in the points standings, highest of any driver not also competing in the Cup Series, and finished second behind David Ragan in the Rookie of the Year standings. On Sunday 20 April 2008 Ambrose was involved in a racing incident with Boris Said in the Busch Series event in Mexico. Ambrose admitted "getting into the back" of road course specialist, Said, causing Said to wreck and ruining his chances at a race where Said has consistently finished in the top-ten. After the race Said claimed that he was not mad at Ambrose, but wanted to apologise to (Ambrose's) crew chief, Gary Cogswell because it was going to "cost him a car," implying that Said will wreck Ambrose intentionally next time they find themselves on a NASCAR track together. Even though NASCAR said that Said just wrecked himself by getting loose, and that Ambrose has repeatedly apologised, in numerous subsequent public appearances, Said has not backed down in his threatening of Ambrose, at one point suggesting he would not apologise but preferred to "beat (Ambrose's) ass".