NASCAR Cup

Richmond: JTG/Ambrose preview

Ambrose Visits with Australian Pro Golfers Appleby, Goggin, Lutterus and Pampling before heading to Richmond CORNELIUS, N.C. (April 27, 2010) - - Today, Australian professional golfers Stuart Appleby, Mathew Goggin, David Lutterus and Rod ...

Published: Apr 28, 2010, 5:40 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Ambrose Visits with Australian Pro Golfers Appleby, Goggin, Lutterus and Pampling before heading to Richmond

CORNELIUS, N.C. (April 27, 2010) - - Today, Australian professional golfers Stuart Appleby, Mathew Goggin, David Lutterus and Rod Pampling, greeted NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Marcos Ambrose for a tour of the shop housing his JTG Daugherty Racing team.

Ambrose showcased his No. 47 Bush's Baked Beans Toyota he is racing at Richmond International Raceway while his fellow mates talked about preparing for the PGA Tour's Quail Hollow Championship at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte this week.

"It was great seeing Rod and meeting Stuart (Appleby), Mathew (Goggin) and David (Lutterus)," Ambrose said. "They're a bunch of great guys. I enjoyed spending a few hours with them at the shop today talking about golf and racing."

"Marcos gave us a great tour and it was amazing to see firsthand how large the facility is, the amount of people working there and the cars in rotation," Pampling said. "I really enjoy watching NASCAR and it's nice to see other Australians, such as Marcos, in other sports and doing well. I've went behind the scenes at a NASCAR race before and I'm looking forward to sneaking into another race soon."

On Thursday, Ambrose is competing in the third annual Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown at Southside Speedway in Midlothian, Va. All proceeds from this event will help raise awareness and funding for the specific needs of individuals afflicted with Cystic Fibrosis as well as other programs that support chronically ill children.

"It's really for a special cause and I'm appreciative that Denny Hamlin extended an invitation," said Ambrose about the 250-lap NASCAR Late Model Stock Car (LMSC) event. "I've heard Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Bobby Labonte, Kyle Busch along with other Cup drivers and some of the best Late Model Stock Car drivers are competing in it. It's going to be a lot of fun."

The next day Ambrose has two practices and qualifying at Richmond International Raceway. Ambrose has endured his fair share of bad luck this season and is looking to rebound from a 37th-place finish (accident) at Talladega Superspeedway this weekend.

"I got clipped in the rear at Talladega and the wall came up fast," Ambrose said. "I smacked it pretty good. It's just amazing how these cars can absorb impacts like that. Sunday was just a bad day because I got frustrated and wasn't nice to my guys on the radio. I was upset because I got tangled up on pit road and the car totally lost speed with the left side damage. I apologized as soon as I got out of the car, but it's going to take action rather than just words. We were right behind Mark Martin when we were crashed and he finished fifth. It just wasn't our day."

Ambrose is putting a lot of pressure on himself to perform for his sponsors and his team.

"I have a lot of pressure on my shoulders to get a top-10 finish and ultimately our first win," Ambrose said. "I think the biggest thing you can do as a driver - a team leader - is stand up and be accountable. We need to shake our bad luck and have a strong finish on Saturday for Bush's Baked Beans, Kleenex, Kingsford Charcoal, Lance, Little Debbie, Clorox, Scott, Viva and Tom's."

The JTG Daugherty Racing team has hit the reset button while Ambrose is learning to manage his own expectations.

"You learn from your mistakes and we've made some, but we know we need to regroup and keep moving forward," Ambrose said. "We are guilty of trying too hard. The sophomore slump is in the forefront of my mind. I'm worried about how we have gone. I'm wondering if we are expecting too much and trying too hard, which can produce mistakes.

"Frustration is easy to creep into a team," Ambrose continued. "We will sort it out. We've got to back it down a notch and let it come to us. We've tried to manipulate our performances too much instead of growing organically - - letting it happen."

This is only Ambrose's second full-time season as a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competitor and thus far he has done a commendable job. Ambrose has recorded a runner-up finish at Watkins Glen International and owns a pair of third-place finishes. Altogether, he has recorded five top-five, eight top-10 and 20 top-15 finishes since his debut at Infineon Raceway on June 22, 2008. Now, he's focused on a strong finish at Richmond's .75-mile oval, where he finished 11th and 22nd respectively last season."

"Richmond is one of my favorite tracks on the circuit and if I can come away from there with a top-10 finish I will be very happy," Ambrose said. "I have two of my mates coming over from Australia to watch the race. They have come from a long way and I want to blow them away with the NASCAR experience. It's going to be a great show and it's a great series with great drivers. I know they will have sensory overload and will be cheering and having a great time. Right now, it's the highlight of my life and I want to share it with other people that wouldn't be able to see it."

-source jtg racing

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Richmond: Greg Biffle preview

Next article Standings after Talladega

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

WSJ Report: NASCAR is building 80+ race cars for Days of Thunder sequel

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup 1 h

WSJ Report: NASCAR is building 80+ race cars for Days of Thunder sequel

Brennan Poole to leave Alpha Prime Racing; team owners 'disappointed' to see him go

NASCAR O'Reilly

NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly

Charlotte II

11 h

Brennan Poole to leave Alpha Prime Racing; team owners 'disappointed' to see him go

Oscar Piastri on his Singapore puncture: “Ironically, it probably helped”

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

12 h

Oscar Piastri on his Singapore puncture: “Ironically, it probably helped”

Winners and losers from NASCAR Cup at Charlotte after dramatic finish

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Charlotte II

15 h

Winners and losers from NASCAR Cup at Charlotte after dramatic finish

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts