In a decision he made before his second-place NASCAR Sprint Cup Series finish at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International last month, Richard Petty Motorsports officially announced Saturday that Marcos Ambrose won’t return to the organization in 2015.
Ambrose, in his fourth year of driving for RPM will return to his native Australia and focus on his next chapter.
“First of all I need to thank everybody at Richard Petty Motorsports, it has been a great four years together. It has been incredible to drive for the King and Stanley DeWalt and Ford Racing and everybody. The time is just right for me to stop. I feel like the timing is right for myself and my family to return to Australia and that is what we are going to do.”
Amid escalating speculation that Ambrose will rejoin Australia’s V8 Supercar Series in a team owned by Roger Penske, the Tasmanian reluctantly wouldn’t offer any insight on his future plans.
“Today (Saturday) is not the day to talk about anything about my racing future,” he said. “I feel like personally this is the right choice for myself and my family to call it a day here in the US and move on to our next chapter.”
Still, with his racing future unknown or yet, unannounced, Ambrose said it was a personal decision to head home, where he’ll reunite with his wife and children.
“There has been a lot of conjecture through the years but I just want to get my kids home to enjoy the Australian lifestyle as well so they can make a good choice when they grow up,” Ambrose sounded. “This is really a racing choice for me and I feel like the time is right for me to stop in the US and personally I think it is a great time to move back home to Australia with my family.”
Another reason that sealed Ambrose’s mind was his intuition that had accomplished everything he was going to at the highest level of NASCAR competition. Through 217 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races, he had scored two wins on road courses, posted 18 top-fives and captured 44 top-10 finishes. Ambrose’s best finish on a non-road course is third twice dating back to Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway (2009) and Dover (Del.) International Speedway (2011). He finished 18th in the final Sprint Cup standings twice in 2008 and 2012.
“There were a lot of factor in it but I feel like my level has plateaued at the Sprint Cup level. I haven’t kicked off the next level,” he spoke. “I’ve always said that if I felt like I had flattened off my learning curve or my success – that I was only in the US to win and if I wasn’t able to content like I want to then I need to look at my situation and that has been the case. It
has been a tough couple years on the race track for me and the personal situation is clear and I just think the timing is right to go home.”
Ambrose made his decision a few weeks ago and said that team principal Richard Petty took it well.
“They understand and have been very open and frank with each other all the way through and RPM has been a great team to drive for and fully understand my situation and have worked together on this,” Ambrose said. “I feel like I’ve left them better than when I entered with them. I feel I’ve contributed to the turnaround. They are a great team that is moving forward with a car in the Chase this year and we have won races. When I first joined them in the turmoil of the Gillette changeover there were a lot of gray clouds circling around them. They are on a great path and I wish them the best. I value Richards friendship greatly and the family and everybody here at RPM. They are a great company and I wish them the most success.”
Team Penske’s president Tim Cindric tweeted shortly after the announcement that they will hold a press conference on Monday (September 15) at 9:00 p.m. to update the media about their future V8 Supercar Series plans.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
