Saturday, September 13, 2014

Ambrose Will Not Return in 2015

Richard Petty Motorsports announced today the No. 9 team will move forward with a new driver in 2015. Marcos Ambrose, who has been with RPM since 2011, has informed the organization that he will return to his native home of Australia in 2015, reportedly to drive for a new Aussie V8 Supercar team co-owned by Roger Penske. 

RPM is currently evaluating several driver opportunities to help drive the No. 9 team forward and will make an announcement at the appropriate time.  

Richard Petty, co-owner of Richard Petty Motorsports, expressed thanks to Ambrose for his dedication to the team. 

"Marcos will always be a part of our extended racing family," said Petty. "He came over to the United States with his family and dedicated his time here to giving it the best he had each week. I couldn't ask anything more from Marcos and his commitment on and off of the track to our race team and our partners. Away from the track, he's a family person first. That's something I respect and we'll miss Marcos, Sonja and their children." 

Ambrose will depart the team as one of the most successful drivers to ever race under the Petty banner. He is recognized as one of the best road course racers in NASCAR history, most notably at Watkins Glen International, where he has six NASCAR wins. 

 

 
 

5 comments:

  1. I wonder if this will make the #9 available next year for Chase Elliot at Hendrick Motorsports..

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    1. Anonymous11:38 AM

      Barring an unexpected premature opening at HMS Chase won't be moving to Cup until at least the 2016 season according to Rick, Bill, Jr, Kelly, and Chase. He has another year on his JRM Nationwide/Xfinity contract and HMS has all 4 allowed teams full.

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    2. I don't think that's remotely possible. NASCAR limits the number of cars per team to four. No one thinks Johnson, Gordon or Earnhardt are going anywhere anytime soon and Kahne, although he hasn't won big, made the Chase this year and is NASCAR's second most popular driver behind Jr. Personally, I think Hendrick has a conundrum with Elliot, in that he doesn't want to put him on a partner team like SHR although, currently, they're all full at the inn, too, with the #14,#4,#10 and #41 all under contract through at least 2015. He'll probably revisit this for 2015, maybe on the #5 car when Kahne's contract is up. At some point he's got to bring in a colt to his aging stable.

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    3. Anonymous2:58 PM

      I think he was talking about the number, not the car

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  2. Sorry to see Marcus leave NASCAR. He is an incredible road racer. Always a class act when being interviewed after a tough day too.

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