After months of speculation Marcos Ambrose has confirmed that he will be end his fulltime NASCAR career and bring his family back to Australia.
“There has been a lot of conjecture through the year 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,” said Ambrose.
“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.”
Ambrose, the winner of the 2003 and 2004 V8 Supercars Championship, has been racing in the US since 2006 and been part of the Richard Petty Motorsport organisation since 2011. He has three wins in the top-tier Sprint Cup, all at the Watkins Glen road course.
While he collected a total of seven wins in the US across both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series. He took victory at this year’s Nationwide Series race at Watkins Glen, before being pipped by AJ Allmendinger in the Sprint Cup race the following day.
“I never thought I would achieve what I have at the Sprint Cup level,” he said.
“I have survived here for years and I have had some wins but not enough and I feel like I was up against it early on from my background. I came from a country that doesn’t have any asphalt oval racing at all and so I feel like I have achieved a lot and am really satisfied.
“It is not a financial decision at all, it is a personal choice.”
Ambrose stopped short on announcing just what he has planned from 2015.
“Today is not the day to talk about anything about my racing future,” Ambrose 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. This decision was made some time ago and RPM felt like today was a good day to announce it, but I had spoken to RPM about this before the summer.”
Ambrose also added that he didn’t want to just simply make up the numbers in the Sprint Cup going forward.
“I feel like my level has plateaued at the Sprint Cup level. I haven’t kicked off the next level,” said the Tasmanian.
“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 was asked to give a snapshot of the challenge of racing at the top level of NASCAR.
“It is not easy. It really is a tough environment,” said Ambrose.
“It really is an incredible thing to make it to the Sprint Cup level because the talent level is very high from drivers to engineers to sponsors and teams. It is an amazing journey I have been on.”
“It is an incredible feeling to drive a Sprint Cup car at these speeds on these kind of race tracks and I will miss it there is no doubt about it. I am just going to enjoy the last few races.”
However, the grind of racing 38 times a year is something he will not miss.
“I will enjoy some off weekends. That will be nice.”
The final race of the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup will be at Miami-Homestead on 16 November.
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