Kobalt Tools 400: Marcos Ambrose Race Preview

Marcos Ambrose • No. 9 DEWALT Ford Fusion

• · Marcos Ambrose has made three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at Las Vegas
• · Ambrose’s best career finish in Vegas (fourth) came in last year’s event
• · Ambrose enters the 267-lap event in 21st place in the driver point standings

Ambrose on Las Vegas Motor Speedway: “Las Vegas is one of my favorite race tracks. We’ll have DEWALT on the car for the first time this season and we want to put on a great showing for them. We ran in the top-five for the majority of the race last year and I finished in fourth, my best finish at the intermediate track. I really just love Vegas, I love all the 1.5-mile race tracks, to me that’s what NASCAR is all about, high speed and high banking. Vegas is a great town and the crowd is always full of energy and excitement. “

Ambrose on Racing at Vegas: “Las Vegas is all about the aero platform, high speed and high down force racing, you’ve got to stay in the racing grooves and go where the car wants to take you. At those high speeds if you are loose going into the corners and aren’t in the groove, there is no way you are going to be able to turn the steering wheel. One of my favorite parts about racing in Vegas is that it allows the drivers to really explore different possibilities on the track and to really use the speed and banking to our advantage.”

Crew Chief Todd Parrott’s Thoughts Heading into Las Vegas: “I’m looking forward to going to Las Vegas this year, we had a successful run out there last year and I’m looking for a strong run this weekend. We had a good car in Phoenix, so I’m building off of a little momentum that we had in the race. The outcome wasn’t what we were looking for, but we still have momentum knowing our car was fast all day. We’ve run strong the first two races of the year, we just don’t have the finishes to show for it and I’m looking to change our luck around on Sunday.”

Parrott’s Keys to Getting Around Las Vegas: “We need to make sure the DEWALT car has good grip and is snug on entry into the corners. It needs to turn well through the center and have good drive off of the corner with a lot of power. Getting on pit road can be tricky, the DEWALT car will carry a lot of speed off of Turn 4 and Marcos will enter pit road really fast. He’ll need to be spot on getting into the pits and the Richard Petty Motorsports crew will need to have lightning fast stops. There will be some pit strategy that comes into play this weekend. Two tire calls will be important for track position and we’ll need to make sure we have the DEWALT Ford Fusion running out front when the checkered flag flies at Las Vegas this weekend.”

Chassis History: The No. 9 RPM team has prepared chassis No. 735 for this weekend’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This DEWALT Ford was previously run last season at several 1.5-mile tracks including Las Vegas.

Notes: Ambrose has three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. His best finish (fourth) and his best start (second) came in last year’s event at the 1.5-mile track. Ambrose has completed 818 of 819 laps attempted in Cup Series competition at the track. His average starting position is 13 and his average finishing position at Vegas is 12.7.

The No. 9 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford Fusion will have a different look this weekend. DEWALT will make its first appearance of the year as the primary partner of the No. 9 machine.

Race Information

Date: March 11, 2012
Track: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Laps: 267 Laps/400 Miles
TV Information: 3 p.m. ET on FOX
Radio Information: 3 p.m. ET on PRN
Qualifying: March 9 at 6:30 p.m. on SPEED

Be sure to follow Richard Petty Motorsports on Twitter @RPMotorsports for behind the scenes updates, driver appearance information and qualifying and race updates. You can also check us out on our Facebook page at Richard Petty Motorsports.

/// RPM PR