Kyle Busch made a statement Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.

So did polesitter Mark Martin, who pressured Busch to the finish line of the Sharpie 500 during a four-lap run to the checkered flag but couldn’t make the pass for the win.

But it was Australian Marcos Ambrose who had all the attention with his third place, the Tasmanian’s best ever finish on an oval.

Ambrose rated the third place finish at the daunting Bristol Motor Speedway as the most satisfying result of his NASCAR career to date.

Ambrose started from 25th place in the 43-car field and never dropped lower than that position in his charge towards the front aboard his Clorox-backed #47 entry, exhibiting strong car speed all night in the 500-lap race.

For most of the race Ambrose was inside the top 10 and towards the end of the race he battled with NASCAR legend Mark Martin (who competed in his 1000th NASCAR race tonight), NASCAR bad boy Kyle Busch and Greg Biffle in the top five.

Busch won for the fourth time this season and for the second time at Bristol in 2009.

“Mark Martin—what a class act,” said Busch, who won for the 16th time in the Cup series. “He deserved to win this race. I’m sorry he came home in second. I know how he feels. I drove as hard as I could.

“He had a chance. He could have done it (moved Busch out of the way). But he didn’t. He raced me clean.”

The best ever oval third was just a part of a great weekend for Ambrose. Earlier in the day, global consumer giant Kimberly-Clark announced that it will back Ambrose and his JTG Daugherty Racing team next season for five races with its Kleenex brand, joining existing sponsors Little Debbie, The Clorox Company, Bush’s Beans and iRacing.com.

with NASCAR Media & Marcos Ambrose Media