Having secured second place in this year's NASCAR Busch Series rookie standings, and eighth overall, Australian Marcos Ambrose has been handed the chance to contest a limited Sprint Cup campaign in 2008 with the Little Debbie Ford.
The multiple V8 Supercar champion was confirmed as part of the Wood Bros/JTG team's assault on the soon-to-be renamed Cup competition, achieving his ambitious aim of rising to the top of American stockcar competition.
Q:
It must be a great feeling to have twelve Cup races on your schedule for next year, just one week after the 2007 season finished in Florida?
Marcos Ambrose:
This Cup deal with Little Debbie is really exciting. Little Debbie is a fantastic sponsor, the sort of company that really promotes NASCAR. I’ve already been getting to know the McKee family and the people at Little Debbie and they’re great people and I’m looking forward to representing them next season.
Q:
How does it feel to get the call-up to Cup competition?
MA:
For me to get the chance to drive in Cup is huge. I am going to give it everything I’ve got and do our team and all our great sponsors proud. It’s just a fantastic opportunity for me. I’m not taking it for granted, I’m going to make every effort to reward the team’s faith in me.
Q:
You will also be heavily involved in the marketing and promotion of Little Debbie....
MA:
I’m looking forward to that, and I think my young daughters will enjoy that part of it as well. We already have Little Debbie cakes in our kitchen. Maybe we can produce an Australian snack cake for Little Debbie, one with Vegemite in it. Little Debbie is a brand that really gets behind NASCAR and it’s driver and team and that sort of support and confidence really gives you a boost, it really does. When our team is putting in the long hours and we are doing everything we can to get a good result, we know that we’ve got a great sponsor behind us and good people as well. It’s a privilege to be representing them next year.
Q:
NASCAR Sprint Cup is an incredibly tough field, so what is the initial approach going to be for the first few races?
MA:
I said after Homestead on the weekend that the Busch Series is tough. Cup is another level again. But we’ve achieved a lot as a team this year and the work going on behind the scenes is great. I’m confident we can achieve some good things in these races. Yes, it’s a big challenge to run against the biggest names in the sport in my third year over here, but it’s what I’m here to do. I’ve always said that I enjoyed running in Busch races when there were a lot of Cup guys running as well because you had a benchmark and you could compare yourself to them. Now I’ve got my chance to run some races in the big league and I am going to try my very best, see how we go and learn every step of the way.
Q:
What do you expect it to be like racing against all the top guys in Cup? You have run with a lot of them in the Busch Series this season...
![Australian Marcos Ambrose will make his NASCAR Sprint Cup debut with the Little Debbie Ford Fusion in 2008 [pic credit: BAM Media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/398881.jpg)
