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MARCOS AMBROSE SIGNS WITH RICHARD PETTY MOTORSPORTS – Stanley to sponsor Ambrose in the No. 9 Ford Fusion
08.17.2010

Concord, N.C. (August 17, 2010) – In preparation for the 2011 season, Richard Petty Motorsports announced today that driver Marcos Ambrose has signed a multiyear agreement with the organization to drive the No. 9 Ford Fusion in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Long-time RPM sponsor Stanley Black & Decker will be the primary sponsor of the No. 9 team.

“I’m very excited to join Richard Petty Motorsports,” said Ambrose. “It’s an incredible honor to be able to race for a legend like The King and be a part of this organization. I’m also happy to be back with Ford Racing. The No. 9 team has been a very successful team in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. With the support of Ford and everyone at RPM, I believe we can continue that tradition of success. I’m also excited to join forces with Stanley.”

“We are very happy to have Marcos Ambrose join our team,” said NASCAR Hall of Famer and team owner Richard Petty. “He’s a very talented and passionate driver and will be a great addition to our team.”
“We knew once Marcos became available that we wanted him to be a part of the RPM family,” said Foster Gillett, managing partner and team owner. “He’s a fan favorite and he’s proven to be a tough competitor on track. We’re thrilled to have Stanley continue their partnership with our team and believe that Marcos is a great fit for the Stanley Racing program.”

“Stanley is pleased to partner with Marcos,” said Scott Bannell, Vice President Brand Management and Licensing, Stanley Black & Decker. “We look forward to carrying the winning tradition of the No. 9 car into the 2011 season.”

The Tasmanian-born driver cut his racing teeth in V8 Supercar competition before making the shift to NASCAR in 2006. Through a partnership with Ford Racing, Ambrose made his American racing debut in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. In 2007, the driver made the jump to the NASCAR Nationwide Series where he competed for two seasons before his first full season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2009.

“All of us at Ford are very happy to have Marcos back home,” said Jamie Allison, director, Ford North America Motorsport. “We helped Marcos come to America and become a NASCAR driver because we believed in his talent, and loved the way he connected with Ford fans here and in Australia. Already a Ford champion in Supercars, we believe his move to RPM will give him the car and equipment to win races and contend for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup going forward.”

Ambrose, 33, is in his second season in NASCAR’s premier racing series. He collected a third straight win at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International in the NASCAR Nationwide Series in July.

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The official announcement should come later today, but Ford Racing via Facebook has already spilled the beans.

“Ford Racing In honor of today’s announcement that Marcos Ambrose is coming home to drive the No. 9 for Richard Petty Motorsports , we thought you would enjoy a look back at his Ford Racing career. Welcome back Marcos!”

See their video montage to the theme of “Welcome Back Cotter” here http://www.facebook.com/OfficialFordRacing

And here: http://video214.com/play/OVLzYgpnC2B4dESHOTFEgA/s/dark

Official Announcement is here

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ST. LOUIS (August 17, 2010) – Budweiser has a rich NASCAR tradition, sponsoring some of the sport’s most celebrated drivers, including Bobby Labonte, Darrell Waltrip, Bill Elliott, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne. Today, Budweiser announced Richard Childress Racing driver Kevin Harvick will become the next star to take the wheel of the iconic Budweiser car when the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season begins in February.

“Budweiser’s involvement in NASCAR dates back more than three decades, and we’re excited to have as successful a driver as Kevin Harvick to usher in a new era for Budweiser,” said Mark Wright, vice president of media, sports & entertainment marketing, Anheuser-Busch. “Kevin also benefits from having the support of a highly respected owner in Richard Childress and the great people of Richard Childress Racing, who will help put the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet in a position to challenge for Sprint Cup championships.”

Under the terms of the deal, Budweiser will serve as primary sponsor of the No. 29 Chevrolet for 20 points races, two non-points races during Speedweeks and co-primary sponsor of the Sprint All-Star Race. Budweiser will remain an associate sponsor for the remaining races on the schedule.

“Budweiser is one of the most respected sponsors in our sport,” said Harvick. “They do a lot to market their teams and the sport in television broadcasts and away from the track. I’m looking forward to driving the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet, taking it to Victory Lane and winning championships.”

The 2011 season will mark Harvick’s tenth full year in NASCAR’s top series. In 2001, he earned two victories en route to a ninth-place finish and Rookie of the Year honors. Harvick has 14 Sprint Cup Series wins, 72 top-five and 145 top-10 finishes, with major points victories coming in the 2003 Brickyard 400 and 2007 Daytona 500. Since the introduction of the season-ending “Chase for the Sprint Cup” format in 2004, Harvick has made the Chase three times and on two occasions finished a career-high fourth in the final point standings. He is also the two-time and defending champion of the Budweiser Shootout (2009-2010).

Harvick currently sits atop the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings with three wins, 11 top-five and 16 top-10 finishes, and became the first driver to clinch a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup – his fourth appearance in five years – following his win at the Carfax 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

“Throughout his career, Kevin has shown he can win at any level in NASCAR,” said Richard Childress, owner of Richard Childress Racing. “Combining his talent with Budweiser’s NASCAR lineage and proven track record of innovative sponsorship activations makes this an exciting pairing for fans everywhere. RCR prides itself on its heritage and authenticity, so working with a brand like Budweiser, which has built their reputation on those same values, is a very special opportunity.”

Harvick has also made a name for himself in both the Nationwide (formerly Busch) Series and Camping World (formerly Craftsman) Truck Series. Since his breakout Busch Series season in 2000, when he earned three wins and Rookie of the Year honors, Harvick has won two overall titles (2001, 2006) and, in 2003, the owner’s-only championship with co-driver Johnny Sauter. During that same period in the Truck Series, he has nine victories, 35 top-five and 48 top-10 finishes in just 105 races.

The King of Beers first sponsored a team on the NASCAR Winston Cup Series circuit in 1983 and its legacy in racing has been solidified by popular drivers like Terry Labonte, Darrell Waltrip, Geoff Bodine, Bill Elliott, Kenny Schrader, Ricky Craven, Wally Dallenbach, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne.

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Guest Column by Cathy Elliott

The past few days in NASCAR have started to resemble a Sudoku puzzle. You know the pieces are going to fall into place eventually. You’re just not exactly sure how.

Sudoku is a number puzzle, usually a block of nine individual squares combining to make one big square, where you have to arrange digits in a certain order so that no line — horizontal or vertical — contains the same number twice. I have never mastered it, or completed even a single one; just thinking about it prompts a mad dash for my Goody’s Cool Orange stash.

A few of the numbers, like that famous Biblical tree planted by the water, shall not be moved, but the rest are subject to relocation. The trick is finding the right spot for them to land.

Some look at Sudoku and see a fun challenge. Others see an indecipherable hieroglyphic that requires the mental equivalent of a crystal ball or Rosetta Stone to sort things out.

NASCAR, I suppose, sees both, although you have to wonder how in the world they manage to keep it all sensibly organized.

Summer’s end is the time of year when NASCAR generally announces the Sprint Cup Series race schedule for the following season. With the notable exception of 2004 — the first official year of the realignment process — the schedule has held few surprises.

Next year, however, is starting to approximate how you might feel upon walking into your home and discovering that in your absence, all the furniture has been rearranged. The official schedule hasn’t been announced yet, but various track announcements and press releases have already answered some of the questions.

Atlanta Motor Speedway, which has hosted two Cup races a year for a half century, is down one. Kentucky Speedway, which has hosted zero Cup races a year since 2001, is up one.

Kansas Speedway has added a second race, and Auto Club Speedway has lost one. Phoenix International Raceway hung on to their two annual Cup Series weekends, but the first has moved from April to February. New Hampshire Motor Speedway has been moved out of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup; Chicagoland Speedway has moved in to take its place.

The new schedule is interesting, but like any sort of change, will take some getting used to. We might be banging our shins on the coffee table the first year or so.

A more immediate issue is the final spot in the 12-driver Chase lineup, which has an awful lot of turnover.

It brings to mind another numbers-oriented game, this one from childhood. In the process-of-elimination game Musical Chairs, the players outnumber the seats. So when the music ends and everyone plops into place, one competitor is left with no place to perch.

Interestingly, in this game the last man standing — the only guy still on his feet — is no longer eligible to win.

In some parts of the country, Musical Chairs is also known as a cakewalk, where the one who claims the final chair literally takes the cake. In six weeks of racing, from Loudon, N.H. to Watkins Glen, N.Y., three drivers have occupied this seat — Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer and Mark Martin.

Edwards has gradually moved higher into the Chase field, but the other two are still duking it out, trading punch for punch like Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed. Martin is a perennial contender, while Bowyer has shown himself to be a model of consistency. At this point, there’s really no way to predict who will win the fight.

Perhaps it will be neither. A handful of other guys, most notably Ryan Newman, Jamie McMurray and even Dale Earnhardt Jr., are hot on their heels. None of them should be taken lightly.

Newman has been known to put together some pretty impressive winning streaks in the past. McMurray has shown a knack for grabbing headlines this season, with high profile wins in the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400. And it’s frankly difficult to dismiss Junior with two short track races – at Bristol and Richmond – still to be run before the Chase field is set.

Soon the entire 2011 schedule will be released, and the 12 Chase drivers confirmed, leading to Las Vegas and the crowning of a champion.

It isn’t a mystical process, and it doesn’t require an ancient granite key to unlock the answers — just a lot of time, thought and very hard work. It has taken NASCAR many months of ciphering, but the numbers now seem to be falling neatly into place, and soon the entire puzzle will be complete.

In the end, what began as a random and jumbled list all adds up, and that definitely takes the cake.

The opinions expressed in this articles are solely those of the author and not this website.