Marcos Ambrose has always been the kind of driver who makes you believe racing can be bigger than borders. When he jumped into NASCAR’s Truck Series in 2006, he shone, especially on road courses, snagging wins at Watkins Glen in 2011 and 2012 for Richard Petty Motorsports. Sure, he got known for those twisty tracks, but he put in the work on ovals too.

He learnt everything about lopsided setups and how tires hold up under constant left turns. What makes him special is how he could win in heavy-duty stock cars and still handle road racing machines like a pro. And after crossing hemispheres and formats, Ambrose finally weighed in on the endless ovals versus road courses argument.

Ovals are the real beast, says Ambrose

While chatting on the Apex Hunter United Podcast, Marcos Ambrose laid it out plain, stating that ovals are way tougher because the car’s so out of whack from all the banking and side push. “Yeah I’ve thought a lot about. When go to Bathurst, you’ve really got everything symmetrical, what we call America cattywampus.”

He pointed out how in Supercars, like at Bathurst, everything’s even left and right sides match up nice for those mixed turns. But in NASCAR ovals, it’s all twisted, left front way different from the right, just to fight the constant lean.

He kept going: “When you go to NASCAR and start running ovals, the left front wheel is actually not even on the same wheelbase. You’ve got tire pressures , five or six pounds of the left, and 30 or 40 on the right. The car is just so different. I had a hard time feeling the front tires.”

Marcos Ambrose said it’s like the wheels are living separate lives, pressures all over the map, and that made it tough to get a read on the front end. He struggled to tell which tire was letting him down, especially when things went sideways.

That led right into the next headache: “I could tell you it’s understeering but I can’t tell you which tire let you down … all of a sudden, I realize, I don’t have enough Ackerman that inside. It’s just not working enough, and you just know you’re going to be cooked before you even start the day.”

He meant the steering geometry, how the inside wheel turns sharper, but on ovals, it’s a nightmare to dial in. You’d feel the push, but pinpointing why to forget it. Ambrose knew from the jump if the setup was off, you’d be toast before the green flag even dropped.

He wrapped it up with how practice makes or breaks it: “If I had a feel that better in practice … one tire needs to be more slipped on the inside than the other … so over time you get better … but the guys … way up the road.”

Ambrose said if he could sense the slip better during sessions, he’d tweak faster, but ovals demand that feel right away. You learn quickly, but the guys raised on it are miles ahead. It’s that brutal learning curve that makes ovals the undisputed king of tough for him no symmetry, no mercy, just pure adaptation.

Road courses. They’re straightforward by comparison, balanced and forgiving if you’ve got the talent. Ovals force you to wrestle an uneven beast lap after lap, and Ambrose, who’s done both at the highest level, says that’s where the real fight lives. His verdict lands like a checkered flag: ovals win the debate, hands down, because they test everything you’ve got and then some.

And while oval racing is tough in itself, the Next Gen struggles add to it. Chase Elliott recently spoke about those struggles.

The Next Gen struggles

Elliott pointed out that the tighter the rules get, the harder it is to make your car different. When every team is working with almost the same parts and the same setup window, passing becomes more about track position, pit stops, and strategy than raw speed differences.

He said everyone at this level is really good, and once the preferred groove rubbers are in, it’s tough to do anything different from the guy in front of you because he’s already in the best lane. Elliott isn’t complaining just to complain.

He said the sport has gotten smarter over the years on aerodynamics and tuning, so the cars naturally end up closer together. Qualifying, pit-stall selection, and lightning-fast stops matter more than ever. It’s a different challenge, and he’s accepted that it might stay this way forever.

NASCAR has heard the noise. League president Steve O’Donnell said recently they’re looking at areas where they could loosen the rules a little to give teams more room to find speed on their own.

The idea is to keep the cost control and safety of the Next Gen car but open up just enough space for real creativity again. It’s the same battle Ambrose lived, just on a bigger scale: when everything is too similar, the little differences become impossible to feel, and racing can start to feel the same.