MOTORSPORT: Ambrose coming home – with Penske?

Marcos Ambrose is quitting NASCARs in the US to return to Australia – and an “update” has been scheduled by America's Penske organisation for Tuesday morning, expected to confirm Ambrose's return to the V8 Supercar Championship.

The Penske announcement is anticipated to involve the acquisition of a V8 Supercar Racing Entitlement Contract from Dick Johnson Racing's Steve Brabeck to field Ambrose in the championship in a Ford Falcon next season.

While American automotive industry and motorsport team owner icon Roger Penske has been known to want an association with a car manufacturer if he was expand his racing interests Down Under, there is no indication yet of major support from Ford Australia.

Ambrose, 38, revealed at this weekend's NASCAR event at Chicagoland Speedway that he had decided months ago to return home to let his young daughters grow up in the Australian lifestyle.

While he has had wins in NASCAR's occasional road races, he has not won in more than 200 Sprint Cup starts on America's oval tracks and admitted his career had “plateaued”.  

“I haven't kicked off the next level,” Ambrose said.

“I've always said that if I felt like I had flattened off my learning curve or my success … then I need to look at my situation and that has been the case.

“It has been a tough couple years on the race track for me.”

He has never made The Chase for the title among the top drivers in NASCAR over the final 10 rounds.

Ambrose has been in the US since 2006, initially in NASCAR's third-tier pick-up truck series and then the second-level Nationwide Series before graduating to the Sprint Cup.

He has been with the team of the sport's biggest figure, Richard Petty, winner of a record 200 Cup races in his days as a driver, since 2011 – driving Fords.

Ambrose won the 2003 and '04 V8 Supercar Championships in Stone Brothers Racing Falcons after his junior career in open-wheelers in Australia and Europe.

In America he twice won Cup races at the famed Watkins Glen road course. He also had multiple wins there in the Nationwide series and another in Montreal, Canada, in that category.

He has had five top 10 finishes in Cup races this year, including second place at Watkins Glen, but is only 23rd in the championship points.

His return to Australia has been mooted for almost a year, since Penske's senior racing lieutenant Tim Cindric visited the Sydney 500 at the end of last season's V8 Supercar Championship.

Penske and Cindric have been in talks with Dick Johnson Racing and V8 Supercar chiefs for several months.

Billionaire Penske has trucking interests in Australia that he is expected to use to sponsor the anticipated hook-up with Ambrose and DJR.

Penske open-wheeler cars have won the Indianapolis 500 a record 15 times and recently he clinched a 12th Indy racing championship with Australian driver Will Power.

Penske's Brad Keselowski won the NASCAR title two years ago, driving a Dodge, and he and teammate Joey Logano are in the running for it this season in Fords.

It has been speculated in the US that Ambrose may return there each NASCAR season for the road races at Watkins Glen in New York State and Sonoma in California.

However, Ambrose said at Chicagoland he had not thought about that.

“I would never have thought I would achieve what I have done,” he said.

“I made it to the Sprint Cup level. I survived here for a number of years. I've had some wins. I haven't had enough.

“It is not easy. It really is a tough environment.

“It really is an incredible thing to make it to the Sprint Cup level because the talent level is very high from drivers to engineers to sponsors and teams. It is an amazing journey I have been on.

“I feel like I was up against it early on just from my background.

“I haven't come from oval racing. I come from a country that doesn't have any asphalt oval racing at all. I feel like I've achieved a lot and I'm really satisfied.

“I feel like the time is right for me to stop in the US. It is a great time to move back home to Australia with my family.

“This decision was made some time ago and Richard Petty Motorsports felt like today was a good day to announce it, but I had spoken to RPM about this before the [northern] summer.”