Marcos Ambrose has vowed that Richard Petty Motorsport will continue its aggressive approach to set-up and strategy as the Australian strives to earn a maiden Chase berth.
Ambrose has made a career-best start to the season, recording his second top five placing in the opening six races of 2014 at Martinsville last weekend.
The bustling start sees Ambrose occupying 14th place in the points standings in a season where NASCAR has made significant changes to the rules which sees the top 16 qualify for the Chase, the final 10 rounds of the season.
The results come at a time when the Australian is weighing up his future in America alongside the possibility of returning home to the V8 Supercars Championship.
“Winning solves a lot of problems doesn’t it? That is my mindset on the #9 team,” said Ambrose during a teleconference ahead of this weekend’s event at Texas Motor Speedway.
“If we win a race, we are close to locking ourselves in and our year is changed.
“If you win races the points take care of themselves. That is absolutely our focus.
“We made a decision at Martinsville after we got rained out on Saturday to stay aggressive and try some stuff we hadn’t tested on Friday and it paid off for us.
“That is what we will keep doing. We will take some risks to be the best we can out there and I think that winning, there is more reward now, and I think you have to keep that in the front and center of your mind.
“It will fix a lot of problems.”
“This business is all about details. You aren’t going to do it with a 25 pound spring change on race day; you will do it by everybody having the attention to detail and commitment to being the best they can.”
Ambrose confirmed that RPM will run a new chassis for the Australian at Texas, a 1.5mile (2.4km) oval with 24-degree banking on its turns.
“The mile-and-a-half tracks are important in this Series. We have a new chassis that we’re running this weekend, and it’s going to be important that we continue to learn as much as possible.
“We were fast at California, and I feel that we have improved from Vegas.
“Our STANLEY team has confidence, and we want to run Top-10 all day on Sunday.”
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