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| Ambrose set for the Rolex 24 |
Ambrose, who impressed in testing
with the team during the "Roar Before the 24" over the weekend, will
supplement the driving line up of AJ Allmendinger, Justin Wilson, John Pew and
Ozz Negri, as Negri continues to heal from an off-season testing injury. The
Roar testing proved productive for the Shank organization, as the team led five
of eight practice sessions during the weekend between the two team Daytona
Prototype entries.
"We couldn't have been happier
with how quickly Marcos gelled with everyone on this team," offered Mike
Shank. "Obviously he's very fast in the car, but he was also great out of
it. That's hugely important for a race like this--you need to have everyone
pulling in the same direction. He fits that perfectly. We are incredibly lucky
to have someone like him interested in racing for us. Ozz is coming back
quickly, but we wanted to go ahead and commit to having Marcos with us now."
Negri will continue to push ahead
with his physical therapy and expects to be able to compete in the 51st running
of the Rolex 24 At Daytona. While he was frustrated not to be able to test the
car this past weekend, he has his eyes on the bigger prize as the team looks to
make it two in a row.
"The biggest thing for me is to
not do anything that keeps this team from winning the race again," said
Negri, who suffered the leg injury while mountain biking. "It was hard to
watch everyone test this weekend, but I still was very proud of the results.
We've been working very hard on our set ups and it was good to see such a
strong test. Marcos is a good guy and has the right attitude with this team.
I'm happy to have someone like him as my teammate and hopefully I can
contribute to another big result in a couple of weeks."
Ambrose has previous experience in
the Rolex 24 At Daytona and with the NASCAR Preseason Thunder kicking off this
weekend, is getting plenty of seat time on both the oval and the 3.56-mile road
course at Daytona International Speedway as he prepares to kick off a busy
season.
Beyond his natural speed and
hard-working attitude, Ambrose brings a range of shared previous experiences
with several members of the No. 60 driving line up, from the similar struggles
of Justin Wilson fighting his way up through the open wheel ladder in England,
to being teammates at Richard Petty Motorsports with AJ Allmendinger.
"I had a good time with the
Mike Shank guys this weekend," said Ambrose, who has two NASCAR Sprint Cup
victories to his credit. ""I'm here for Ozz, and for Michael Shank
Racing, just trying to get through a difficult time with Ozz's injury,. I'm
only here to help. I feel privileged to be with this team, it's a championship
team. It's a lot of fun to be in this car, it's beautiful and the speed really
flies out of this car! I feel really comfortable behind the wheel and I just
want to help anyway I can."
Michael Shank Racing will target a
return to Victory Lane at Daytona International as the 2013 GRAND-AM Rolex
Sports Car Series season kicks off January 26-27.
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