Catchfence

MARCOS AMBROSE • No. 9 DEWALT Ford Fusion 

• Ambrose has made three career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at Darlington

• Ambrose enters the weekend in 21st place in the Sprint Cup Series point standings

• Ambrose’s best finish (13th) at the 1.366-mile track came in 2011

Ambrose’s Thoughts on Darlington Raceway: “I’m ready to get to Darlington this weekend and have another shot at a good run. We had a great car in Talladega last weekend and circumstances didn’t fall in our favor. Our finish didn’t show what our car was capable of doing. I have a great group of guys behind me with my Richard Petty Motorsports crew and I know they are working hard to give me a fast DEWALT car this weekend. We’ve had a bad string of luck lately and I’m hoping to turn that around at Darlington and get some of that momentum back we had going for us early in the season.”

Crew Chief Todd Parrott’s Keys to Getting around Darlington: “We’re visiting the ‘Lady in Black’ this weekend so Marcos will really have to focus on not getting into the wall. Darlington is a long race and you never know when the ‘Lady’ will reach out and bite you. The corners can be treacherous, so Marcos will have to really pay attention and hit his marks.

“We’ll have to make sure the DEWALT car gets into the corner well and rolls through the center well, with good drive off of the corner. You can run better at Darlington if the car is a little tight and you have a little tug on the wheel. The race goes from daylight to darkness and the track conditions will change greatly throughout the race. If we can keep up with the changes and make the right adjustments throughout the race we will be in good shape.”

Chassis History: The No. 9 RPM team has prepared chassis No. 743 for the 367-lap race at Darlington Raceway. This DEWALT Ford Fusion was run at Bristol earlier this year.

Notes: Ambrose has three Cup Series starts at Darlington Raceway. His best finish (13th) and his  best start (sixth) came in last year’s event. He has completed 1,046 of 1,104 laps attempted at the 1.366-mile speedway. Ambrose enters Darlington in 21st place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings. His average finish is 23.7 and his average start at the track is 7.7.

Ambrose’s car will have a different look this weekend as DEWALT will return as the primary partner of the No. 9 Ford Fusion. 

Tune into Sirius XM Radio on Channel 90, Friday, at 10 a.m. ET for the Morning Drive with Pete Pistone and Mike Bagley, to listen to Marcos talk about the upcoming race weekend at Darlington Raceway.

Race Information

Date: May 12, 2012
Track: Darlington Raceway
Laps: 367 Laps/501.3 Miles
TV Information: 7 p.m. ET on FOX
Radio Information: 7 p.m. ET on MRN
Qualifying: May 11 at  5:10 p.m. ET 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.

Source: Richard Petty Motorsports, Press Release