Marcos Ambrose is one of the highest authorities on providing an outsider’s view about NASCAR. The Australian Supercars champion moved to the United States back in 2006 to compete in the stock car racing series and ended up becoming an unignorable icon of it. His words about the relationship between a car and a driver from 2013 are quite remarkable.
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He was asked on the 12 Questions podcast with Jeff Gluck what percentage of success in NASCAR has to do with the car, the driver, and good old luck. He admitted in his response that, to a certain degree, the results do fall on the drivers. There are days when they aren’t at their 100% on the track.
But not all of these days can be attributed to their skill level alone. Ambrose detailed, “There are certainly waves of performance and lack of performance, and I think a lot of that is certainly the track and luck and the team and the combination being right on that day.”
He continued using the example of Jimmie Johnson to make his case. Ambrose explained why a driver makes a difference, saying, “There is certainly an element there that makes Jimmie Johnson win five championships. You can’t deny the fact he’s been the best driver in our field for probably close to a decade.” Johnson eventually went on to win seven NASCAR Cup Series championships.
While drivers are important, the resources available to a team, such as finances, engineering and the manufacturer also play a “major part”, reckoned the 48-year-old. For all the skill that Johnson had as a driver, Ambrose did not believe that he would have been able to win races with a car that was only capable of running at the back of the field.
He said, “If you put Jimmie Johnson in a 36th-place car, he might run 30th with it, but he’s certainly not going to win. So there’s definitely a marriage between the car and the driver.”
How well was Ambrose married to his NASCAR car?
While drivers do make a difference, he contended that the resources that are available to a team are also what ultimately decide the outcome of races.
Ambrose won the Australian Supercars championship in 2003 and 2004 before making the move to the United States. His stint started with the Craftsman Truck Series in 2006.
A year later, in 2007, he moved to the Xfinity Series where he drove for Wood Brothers Racing and JTG Daugherty Racing. He would make it to the final stage in 2009 when JTG Daugherty Racing promoted him to the Cup Series as a driver for the No. 47 Toyota. The driver won a total of two races, both at Watkins Glen, during his time in the premier tier.
He called it quits in the sport after the 2014 season when he finished 23rd in the standings driving for Richard Petty Motorsports. Ambrose is currently the competition director for Gary Rogers Motorsport in Australia.
