So here we are, just over a quarter of the way through the season and Marcos has now used all four of his paint schemes for 2009. With his astonishing run to fourth last week at Talladega...aided by not one but two 'big ones' of course, but he did miss both incidents...Ambrose snuck into the top 20 in points. His race today at Richmond further cemented that position as, despite driving a wrecked car courtesy of Sam Hornish Jr, he ended up 11th.

I read on Marcos' website that Frankie Kerr, his crew chief, believes Ambrose has both the talent and the equipment to win on an oval before a road course...big words, but with the momentum he's currently carrying, not totally inconceivable. Yes, that means I have finally tossed aside my preseason prediction that he'd be riding around midpack and thrown my full weight behind my fellow Aussie (I can hear klv and Lori cheering from here *laugh*).

Like his Kingsford car, Marcos' form has been hot lately with the Australian punching above his weight.

Assuming both Toyota and MWR have gotten to the root of their mechanical gremlins, Marcos should be able to enjoy a good run of races where the only thing he needs to worry about is getting caught up in other peoples accidents. He did brilliantly well to avoid everything at 'dega but it was Richmond that made me change my mind. Ok, so having battle scars on a short track doesn't necessarily hinder your progress, but having backed a car into the wall usually signals a reduction in overall performance I think most everyone would agree. But Marcos soldiered on, helped by the uncertainty of the weather which had all the teams scrambling to find the best strategy to beat the rain, and recorded his fifth top 15 effort in the past six races.

Not only has he gone from 26th to 19th in the points, he's also been included in the foxsports power rankings for the second straight week (and made the nascar.com one for the first time)...and will surely make it three in a row come Wednesday afternoon. Such has been his current form that he's ranked 11th in the most recent rankings, higher than what he should be but, like they say, he does deserve his moment in the sun.

If I have any criticism of Marcos' season thus far, it would have to be the performance of the pitcrew. Now, I know they're a new team so there will always be a steep learning curve, but the races where they've had to scramble to fix Marcos' car, they've been badly shown up. At Las Vegas, Marcos should never have gone down that second lap and barely avoided being trapped one lap down tonight. However, that is merely nitpicking since it isn't just the driver who has the biggest climb in a rookie season.

All in all, I would give Marcos a B+ rating at the conclusion of 'term one' and actually agree with his crew chief about maybe getting a win sooner rather than later. Remember, Ambrose wound up sixth on his first ever visit to Dover and as good as his Nationwide team were, they were no match for Roush, Gibbs and Childress in 2007.

This time though...well, bring it on!