Asian Motor Sports

BRISTOL, Tenn. Marcos Ambrose is happy with his progress on the speedways in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Now he wants the same on the short tracks. Ambrose said his next step during his rookie indoctrination would be a Top-10 finish this Wednesday night in the O’Reilly 200 at the Bristol Motor Speedway.

It’s no secret we’ve had some trouble on the short tracks, Ambrose said. We’ve had good trucks there, but we seem to get in a lot of trouble there most of it not of our own doing.

That’s why the driver of the Team Australia/Aussie Vineyards Ford F-150 said he doesn’t have a game plan for the rugged 200-lap race around Bristol’s high banks other than a Top-10 finish.

There are no goals other than Top 10, he said. I want to get in some laps, continue to learn and be aggressive in the banking. We need a Top-10 finish on a short track.

We’ve come a long way this year. But as a driver, it’s never good enough until you win. It’s been great to get some good finishes, but there’s still so much to learn. The learning curve is still steep, but it’s not as steep as it was earlier this year.

Ambrose, a two-time V8 Supercar Series champion in Australia, first came to Bristol in 2003 to meet Eddie and Len Wood. They, along with Tad Geschickter, formed Wood Brothers/JTG Racing and put Ambrose behind the wheel of a truck in a driver development program.

The track is pretty intimidating,he said. I came here as a spectator three years ago. It’s very daunting, very difficult. At the same time, I’m really eager to give it a go. I know there’s going to be a lot of contact during the race. Hopefully we can stay out of most of it.

Ambrose has only 13 career starts in the truck series, but he already has one pole position and two third-place finishes all on the faster speedways.

Now he wants to expand that success on a short track.

That’s the next step in our learning process,he said. We finished on the lead lap in our last short track race (at Indianapolis), so now we need to build on that. The next step in a Top 10 finish

Qualifying for the O’Reilly 200 is Wednesday 5:30 p.m. The main event, televised live on Speed, is later that night at 9.