Ambrose to make 12 Cup races in '08

Ambrose made his NASCAR debut in 2006 racing in the Craftsman Truck Series and then switched to the Busch Series this year, completing the whole schedule for Wood Brothers/JTG Racing.

The former Australian V8 Supercar Series champion will take part in 12 of the 18 races where Little Debbie will feature as the main sponsor in the No. 21 car, which has been driven this year by former Cup champion Bill Elliot and Ken Schrader.

"For me to get the chance to drive in Cup is huge," Ambrose said. "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."

The 31-year-old will make his Sprint Cup Series debut on June 22 in the first road-course event of the season at Infineon Raceway in California. Before that he will continue to race the No. 59 Ford in the Nationwide Series full-time.

"I said after Homestead on the weekend that the Busch Series is tough," Ambrose added. "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.

"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."

Ambrose was set to attempt his Nextel Cup debut this year at Watkins Glen after being offered a drive by Robby Gordon as a make-up for an incident the two had at Montreal in a Busch Series event.

Unfortunately qualifying was rained out at the Glen and Ambrose was denied the chance to make the field as his car was not in the top 35 in the owner points.