Australian road racing champion Marcos Ambrose will continue his quest for success in NASCAR's left-turn world at the Daytona 500 Sunday.
Ambrose, who finished 26th in last season's Sprint Cup standings in a Toyota, will be making his debut for Richard Petty Motorsports in a Ford for The Great American Race.
"Most of Marcos's career has been left and right. We have to say, all of these are lefts -- you don't get on the brakes, you don't change gears -- so he's still in a learning process," Petty said.
"With his ability on road courses, all we have to do is tune him up for the ovals. I would think it would be easier to go from a road course to an oval than the other way around."
All but two NASCAR Cup races are on ovals.
Petty, the seven-time NASCAR Cup champion and co-owner of Richard Petty Motorsports, is an optimistic about his latest driver.
"I think he will blend right in," said Perry, known simply in NASCAR circles at The King. "He's got a lot of confidence in the team and the team has a lot of confidence in him.
"That's half the battle right there."
Ambrose, born in Tasmania, earned his stripes racing on the twisting European road circuits in open wheel cars against future Formula One stars like Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button.
The 34-year-old Ambrose told Reuters, "We were all 20-year-olds taking a lot of chances trying to get noticed. It was more intense than the V-8 Supercars."
After consecutive championships (2003-2004) in Australia's V-8 Supercar touring series, Ambrose felt robbed of a third title in 2005 and decided it was time to try NASCAR.
Driving for the small JTG Cup team, Ambrose finished 18th in the standings in his first full year 2009, but slipped eight spots last year. His best finish was third at Watkins Glen, New York.
In the middle of the 2010 season, without blaming his team, he made the decision to leave JTG before he had signed with Petty because he felt unfulfilled.
"I'm not here to participate," he said. "I'm here to win. I just felt I need to shake things up to get the most out of myself. I wanted to change.
"I just want to make The King proud of me. If The King is proud of me I'm doing my job well."
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