After his breakthrough 2011 season Marcos Ambrose is looking to continue the improvement in 2012 and add to his wins tally.
That will get underway this weekend with the running of the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona. To run in the event the driver must have been finished in the Top 25 in the Cup Series or been a previous winner at Daytona.
The shoot out is a 75 lap event split into two sections being 25 and 50 laps. Between the short and long race cars will return to the pits for a 10 minute pit stop. At the stop teams can change tires, add fuel and make normal chassis adjustments. Crews will be permitted to work on cars and will be allowed to perform functions they would do on a normal pit stop in a regular NASCAR Sprint Cup event. All work must be performed on pit road or in the garage. Changing of springs, shock absorbers or rearends will not be permitted.
The Grid will determined by a draw at sponsor even Friday night.
For Ambrose it is his first run in the event and he sees a advantage from a set up point of view getting the competitive runs in ahead of the rest of speedweek.
"This is going to be my first time racing in the Budweiser Shootout and I can't wait. I've had to watch it from the sidelines for the past couple of years and was very jealous of all the guys that got to run in it.
"I think it is going to give me and my Stanley team an advantage having a race before the Duels and the Daytona 500. It's going to give us a chance to get more comfortable and stay on the same page as the rest of the cars racing in the Shootout. I've got a chance to win it, so I'm very excited. It will be interesting to see how the drafting works with the new rules. It's going to give us all a chance to really see it. It's just going to be a fun all around race and I'm really looking forward to it."
His crew Chief Todd Parrott, with whom he built strong relationship with last season, is also excited "I'm excited to run in the Bud Shootout, it gives us a little extra time on the track to figure things out. The Shootout will be exciting, there are a lot of good cars in it this year and it's always unpredictable. With it being a nonpoints race it can get very hairy at the end and hopefully the Stanley Ford will be out front when it does."
The races will be broadcast live in Australia on ONE HD and Speed at 12 p.m. Sunday.
