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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Ambrose, Waltrip To Pilot Ferrari
Marcos Ambrose and Michael Waltrip will race sports cars next month...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted December 07, 2009   Charlotte, NC
Marcos Ambrose (Left) and Michael Waltrip (Right) will drive a Ferrari F430 in the January 24 Hours of Dubai sports car race. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regulars Marcos Ambrose and Michael Waltrip are trading in their Toyotas on a new Ferrari. For one weekend, at least.

Ambrose and Waltrip will travel to the Middle East next month, where they plan to compete in the 24 Hours of Dubai sports car race, which is scheduled for Jan. 14-16, 2010. The two Cup pilots will be behind the wheel of the No. 148 Ferrari F430 GT2 of the AF Corse team, sharing driving duties with Rob Kaufman , Rui Aguas and Niki Cadei. Kaufman co-owns Michael Waltrip Racing.

It will not be the first time Ambrose has raced a sports car. The two-time Australian V-8 Supercar Series champion has experience in GT and sports car racing, competing in the Grand-Am Rolex Series event at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal earlier this year with fellow Sprint Cup Series driver Carl Edwards. Ambrose also ran in the GT class at the 2005 24 Hours of Daytona in a Porsche GT3 Cup car with fellow Australians Paul Morris, Craig Baird and John Teulen. 



Ambrose, who pilots the No. 47 JTG-Daugherty Racing Toyota full-time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, left Miami and flew home to his native Australia the day after the NASCAR season ended last month. He said his venture into sports cars was something he sort of fell into.

“It is a bit out of left field,” said Ambrose, who finished 18th in points in his first full season of Cup racing. “Rob Kaufman, who is a part owner of Michael Waltrip Racing, has his own race team in Europe that he 'plays with' and because JTG Daugherty Racing has an association and close alliance with MWR I thought it would be great fun to go across and help Rob out.” 


The two Cup regulars figure to be going in secondary roles.


“It's not too serious. We're just going to go up there and be good support for them,” said Ambrose. “Their lead driver is Rui Aguas and he'll qualify the car and do all the things he wants to do to it. He'll lead the race for us and all those things so there is no pressure on, I'm just going over there with Michael Waltrip and Rob Kaufmann to have a good time and meet some new people and race a cool car. It will help me out too because it gets me back behind the wheel of a race car again before the season starts. I've never been to Dubai and I've never raced a 24-hour race over in the Middle East, so it's a racing first for me.”

And Ambrose said he would be mindful of what he’s driving.

“We'll be in a Ferrari F430. I've never raced a Ferrari but I've driven plenty,” said Ambrose. “I've never raced one and I guess if you crash them they get more expensive to fix. So I'll try not to crash it. A 24 Hour race is a different mind-set. It's not about running the car at ten-tenths. It's about running the car at seven-tenths all day and looking after the gearbox, the brakes and the engine. I'm looking forward to it and it should be fun.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of "Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,"and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to




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