ALL-IN FOR ALLMENDINGER AT THE GLEN

A.J. Allmendinger

Aug. 6, 2015 – Road course maven AJ Allmendinger provided arguably the most feel-good moment of the 2014 season when he won at Watkins Glen. The victory – the first for Allmendinger and JTG Daugherty Racing – secured the single-car team a berth in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Sunday’s Cheez-It 335 at The Glen may be Allmendinger’s last legitimate shot to make NASCAR’s playoffs. Similar to last year, he needs a win to get in.

In six career starts at Watkins Glen, Allmendinger boasts one win, two top fives and four top 10s. He claims the second-best average finish (7.8333), third-best driver rating (100.5), third-best average running position (12.288) and fourth-fastest green flag speed (120.332 mph).

DRIVE FOR FIVE STARTS FOR FOUR

Aric Almirola

October 01, 2014 – The Monster Mile shattered the hopes and dreams of four former Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers at Dover.

AJ Allmendinger, Aric Almirola, Greg Biffle and Kurt Busch were all eliminated from Chase contention following the last race of the opening Challenger Round as the field shrunk from 16 to 12.

Going into the race, Allmendinger stood in good shape to advance to the Contender Round. He ranked 10th on the Chase Grid, one point ahead of Kasey Kahne and Ryan Newman, and seven points ahead of 13th-place Denny Hamlin for the final spot. Biffle (-6 points below the cutoff), Busch (-8) and Almirola (-10) were all on the outside looking in, manning the 14th-16th positions respectively, but still had realistic chances of climbing into the top 12.

Hamlin – who earlier dubbed the race as the most important of his career – vaulted himself into the top 12 with an 11th-place finish, but his performance alone was not enough to bump the 23rd-place Allmendinger from the Chase. Kasey Kahne battled from four laps down on Lap 240, finishing 20th to hold off Allmendinger by two points for the final Contender Round spot.

The four now have a new goal: Fifth place. Even though they were bounced in the first round, Allmendinger, Almirola, Biffle and Busch can still battle for fifth in the final championship points. From here on out, any driver eliminated from the Chase will have his points reset to 2,000, with any points accumulated during the Chase (as well as bonus points to start the Chase) added to that total.

 

REBOUND TIME: BOTTOM FOUR ATTEMPT TO STAY IN THE CHASE HUNT

Ryan Newman

September 19, 2014 – Luckily for Ryan Newman, AJ Allmendinger, Greg Biffle and Aric Almirola, the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup’s Challenger Round does not end after one race. The revamped playoff system keeps all drivers in the hunt until the very last lap at Dover.

Thank goodness. The four stumbled at New Hampshire and currently reside in spots 13-16 in the Chase standings. Sunday’s Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (2 p.m. on ESPN) presents vastly different outlooks for each driver as they try to make the cut after the third Chase race at Dover:

Ryan Newman – The most successful driver of the four at New Hampshire, Newman has to like his chances to advance to the Contender Round. He owns a track-record seven Coors Light Pole Awards and ranks tied for first among all entrants with three wins. His last checkered flag at Loudon came in 2011 and he posted a fifth-place finish in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ first visit there this season.

AJ Allmendinger – In 11 starts at New Hampshire, Allmendinger has one top-10 finish and an average running position of 23.6.

Greg Biffle – Biffle entered the Chase with a string of consistent performances, locking himself into the last spot with five top-10 finishes in his last six regular season races. In 24 starts at New Hampshire, Biffle owns one win (2008), six top fives and nine top 10s.

Aric Almirola – Perhaps the biggest underdog going into the Chase, Almirola was running sixth at Chicagoland until his engine blew with 36 laps to go. The setback caused him to finish 41st. Almirola finished fifth at Loudon in 2013. Otherwise, he hasn’t posted a showing better than 18th in seven other starts there.

 

WHO WILL MAKE A PERFECT 10?

Marcos Ambrose

June 19, 2014 – Nine different drivers have won the last nine races at Sonoma.

Maybe even more noteworthy: For the last seven of those winners, it was the first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series road-course win of their careers.

Of course, that begs the following question: Who can make it 10-for-10 … and better yet, 8-for-8. It’s a surprisingly long list.

Marcos Ambrose: When NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France announced the new championship format, one of the first thoughts that crossed many fans’ minds had to be: “This is Ambrose’s best chance to make the Chase.” Ambrose is a road-course whiz, a ringer who also is a series regular, with two prime opportunities to parlay that into a spot in NASCAR’s playoffs. The first comes this weekend in Sonoma, where he has finished in the top 10 in five consecutive races. He does have two road course victories, both at Watkins Glen.

AJ Allmendinger

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: A Sonoma win for Earnhardt is an unlikely scenario, despite the “career yea” he is having. In 14 Sonoma starts, Earnhardt has yet to finish in the top 10 – let alone win. His best finish is was 11th, which he’s done three times. Still, he enters this weekend on the heels of three consecutive top-10 finishes, including his second win of the season, at Pocono. Earnhardt has yet to win a road-course race of any kind in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Matt Kenseth: Like Earnhardt, Kenseth is a superb talent with a surprisingly rocky record in road course races. In 14 starts at Sonoma, he has only one top-10 finish. He, too, is a career “0-fer” at road courses.

AJ Allmendinger: When Allmendinger showed up to a NASCAR Nationwide Series race in 2013, he won. In two starts, both at road courses, Allmendinger took the Team Penske No. 22 Ford to Victory Lane, leading a combined 102 of the 149 laps run at Road America and Mid-Ohio last year. At Sonoma, Allmendinger has two top 10s and has finished 13th or better in each of the last four races.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Etc.

Today, Thursday, June 19, marks the 65th anniversary of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ first race, held in 1949. In what was then called the Strictly Stock division, the race was held at Charlotte Speedway, a .75-mile dirt track, and won by Jim Roper. It featured a 33-car field that included NASCAR Hall of Famers Tim Flock, Buck Baker, Lee Petty and Herb Thomas. … Dale Earnhardt Jr. scored two top-10 finishes at Michigan last weekend – a third in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race and a seventh in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event – to boost his NASCAR national career top 10 total to 299. One more, and he’ll become the 30th driver to reach the 300 top-10 plateau. … In conjunction with Hendrick Motorsports’ streak of five consecutive wins, Chevrolet has also won five straight. The last manufacturer to win six straight races in NASCAR’s premier series: Chevrolet in 2007, when Hendrick Motorsports also won six consecutive races.

Source: NASCAR

 

AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 BUSH’S® GRILLIN’ BEANS® CHEVROLET SS / BRISTOL

JTG DAUGHERTY RACING BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY QUOTEBOOK

Track: Bristol Motor Speedway

Event: Food City 500

Race Date: Sunday, March 16, 2014

Coverage Begins/Race Start: 12:30 PM / 1 PM Eastern

TV/Radio: FOX / PRN, SIRIUSXM

TEAM QUOTES:

A different look: “Keeping with the grilling theme, we have BUSH’S Grillin’ Beans front and center on our No. 47 Chevrolet SS at Bristol Motor Speedway,” AJ Allmendinger said. “I like nothing better than to get together with family and friends, hang out and grill out. We grill some chicken and I have the hookup to bring some BUSH’S Grillin’ Beans.

AJ Allmendinger

“My family means a lot to me,” continued Allmendinger. “I am an only child and when I was growing up, my parents were at every race. In fact, they mortgaged their house three times so I could do what I wanted to do. That’s why I’m proud to have the BUSH’S name on the No. 47 car. As a family owned company, they understand how important family really is.”

Reflecting first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start: “Bristol will always be a little bit special to me because it is the first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race I made,” Allmendinger said. “I enjoy it, but like I have said before it is just a tough place. You fight for 500 laps around there. You can do everything right and still have something go wrong. It’s tough, but enjoyable. I did the first race there last year and had a decent run. Hopefully, we can keep building and learning going into that race and start off pretty good and have a good weekend.”

Feast or famine: “I just enjoy it – – it’s Bristol (Motor Speedway),” Allmendinger said. “You walk into it and every time you walk down the banking and look down into the coliseum you think ‘This is an amazing place.’ At the same time, for a driver it’s a tough place. I have had some decent runs at Bristol and I have had some runs there that kicked my butt.”

Developing a baseline: “Having an alliance helps when you have someone test there (Bristol Motor Speedway),” Allmendinger said. “Obviously, you would like to be the person to test every track. I think it is just about getting a baseline of where we are in general and that’s what these first six to seven races are. It will be good. Hopefully, we have some momentum going into Bristol. We are definitely making the cars faster each weekend. We have a long way to go too.”

Learning step-by-step:  “I will be the first one to say I’m not the best at taking things step-by-step,” Allmendinger said. “I do know that we are getting better and we are learning. We are right there with the RCR (Richard Childress Racing) cars. We did not get the finish we wanted at Phoenix International Raceway, but we had one of the best speeds out of all the cars. And, we were right there this past weekend at Vegas (Las Vegas Motor Speedway). We’ll see what we’ve got this weekend at Bristol.”

Got speed:  “We will rule Daytona out because it is a different race, but the last two weeks we have had speed in the car, which is positive for sure,” JTG Daugherty Racing competition director Bobby Hutchens said. “We have not capitalized on it yet. We feel like we had an eighth to 12th place car at Phoenix International Raceway a couple weeks ago and had an unfortunate thing happen in the pits with the clutch. At the end of the day, I think our raw speed is quite better this year compared to last. We just have to figure out how to put a car under AJ that will stay with him and also not make the small mistakes we have made on the mechanical side.”

Climbing the charts:  “I was talking to the guys yesterday,” Hutchens said. “In the years I’ve been here, we have not traditionally been at the top of the board. We were seventh on the test day at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and then on practice Friday we ended up ninth and then we backed it up by qualifying and finishing 18th. I think those are all positives things we can take moving forward into Bristol Motor Speedway. At the end of the day, I think we have improved in a lot of areas. We have still got a lot of room to work.”

Maximizing positives: “We have not done any testing for Bristol Motor Speedway, but one of our alliance partners went there and tested,” Hutchens said. “They felt like they had a really good test. All of us will be feeding off of that data. That is something we did not have last year. We are growing accustomed to looking at the data and understanding the differences between the drivers, crew chiefs and engineers and how things are set up and done. We are sifting through all of that and so far our guys have done a good job. They started working on some of that last week to get us ready for Bristol. Hopefully, by utilizing the alliance program we will be able to unload a lot closer than what we have in the past. We did not have the luxury of having a teammate or anybody to talk to before. I feel like that is going to be a pretty big positive for us when we start practice on Friday at Bristol.”

East bound and down: “From Las Vegas to Harrisburg, N.C., it is about 2,200 miles,” said JTG Daugherty Racing transport driver Paul Icenhour. “I arrived at the race shop this morning. We have a second driver for the transporter so we drove straight through without stopping. I will be able to spend a little time at my house sometime today and then come into the shop on Wednesday to get everything turned around to head back out this time for Bristol, Tennessee. Hopefully, we will be loaded up that day and I can leave early Thursday morning to park haulers at 7:30 p.m at Bristol Motor Speedway.”

 

 

 

 

AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 CLOROX® CHEVROLET SS JTG DAUGHERTY RACING QUOTEBOOK

Track: Phoenix International Raceway

Event: The Profit on CNBC 500, Presented by Small Business Fueling America

Race Date: Sunday, March 2

Coverage Begins/Race Start: 2:30 PM/3 PM

TV/Radio: FOX, MRN, SIRIUSXM

February 27, 2014

TEAM QUOTES:

Phoenix International Raceway:  “I look forward to racing at Phoenix International Raceway (PIR) because it’s a fun track for me and it is a technical track,” AJ Allmendinger said. “I have just always enjoyed it.  Hopefully, we can go there and get some momentum going. I finished 11th there in the No. 51 car last year. Richard Childress Racing (RCR) had a good test there and hopefully we can go to PIR and feed off them.”

Clean start:  “We have a clean start this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway after a brake issue at Daytona International Speedway and we have the perfect brand on the hood to play that up with Clorox Fraganzia,” AJ Allmendinger said. “Clorox Fraganzia is a multi-purpose cleaner that comes in three great scents – Spring, Forest Dew and Lavender. I use it at my house and it leaves the whole place smelling great.”

Technical alliance advantage: “We feel like we will be at an advantage at Phoenix,” crew chief Brian Burns said. “The RCR camp has tested at that track. So, we have a notebook to look at now going in with the new rules package. They have already done some work and it gives us a head start as opposed to some teams going there not having that luxury.

“There’s also the new qualifying format, which is obviously new for everybody,” continued Burns. “We feel like we’ve got a good plan going into it and feel like it’s not going to blindside us.”

Welcoming change:  “To have for the fans a constant 30 minutes of cars running there’s going to be so much strategy,” AJ Allmendinger said about the new qualifying format. “You will probably see some tempers flare because you will see some blocking at the end to make sure either they advance to the next group or get the pole. I think as a driver for qualifying, say you don’t get that perfect lap the first round, but it’s just good enough to get into the next group. You really have a shot at the pole.

“Those format changes are going to be a lot of fun,” continued Allmendinger. “The Chase format doesn’t change how I drive. Every weekend you’re out there trying to win the race anyways. If you can’t win the race you are trying to get the best finish possible.

AJ Allmendinger

The Chase format:  “With the Chase format, you can be having a terrible year and all the sudden you win a race and the next thing you know that can light up your season and you’re in The Chase,” Allmendinger said. “Then you gain some momentum, you’re right there and you have a shot at the championship. I think that’s what makes the new format fun. It’s cool to see what NASCAR is doing whether it’s The Chase or qualifying format. It leads to so many more varieties of things that can happen. For us, I think it gives us a good chance. It is just such a long season. It is all about pacing yourself and taking everything as it comes. Each year that I have done this, the more I have learned and the better I have gotten at that. That is what makes the best guys so good at it. They can take a couple bad weekends in a row and forget about it and move on to the next week and almost start over.

“Like I said, if it comes down to you having that bad season, and even with the old format you could win a couple races, but you had to be top 20 in points,” Allmendinger continued. “If you really struggled at the beginning of the year, it was hard to get out of that hole. Now, you can have 12 bad weeks in a row and be 30th in points and next thing you know, you go and win the 13th race. You are in the Chase and you have a shot at it. It really lends itself to making every week like Richmond (International Raceway) to a certain degree for the fans, TV and teams. It will be fun.”

 

PENSKE RACING’S No. 22 CLAIMS TOP SPOT

AJ Allmendinger

August 22, 2013 – For most of the summer only one team has held the top spot in the NASCAR Nationwide Series owners’ championship points standings – the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. That was until last Saturday at Mid-Ohio when the No. 22 Penske Racing Ford claimed the position with a 22-point cushion.

The No. 54 JGR team took its first owners’ lead after the season’s sixth race at Texas, which Kyle Busch won. The point margin reached its zenith of 51 points in mid-July at New Hampshire.

Since then, the drivers of the No. 22 Ford have gradually chipped away at the No. 54’s lead knocking it down to five points entering Mid-Ohio’s road race. AJ Allmendinger’s win in the inaugural NNS event at the Lexington, Ohio, road course, propelled the No. 22 into the top spot in the owners’ points standings.

When the series travels to Bristol for Saturday’s Food City 250, Penske Racing and the No. 22 will arrive on a hot streak having won four of the last five events. Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Allmendinger and Sam Hornish Jr. have combined for eight wins in 2013, seven of them coming in the No. 22.

Source: NASCAR 

 

AJ ALLMENDINGER WINS AT MID-OHIO TO MAKE IT TWO FOR TWO; SAM HORNISH JR. GRABBED THE SERIES POINTS / NNS

LEXINGTON, Ohio – August 18, 2013 – AJ Allmendinger earned his second career NASCAR Nationwide Series victory in the Nationwide Children’s Hospital 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

He had a comfortable lead over pole winner Michael McDowell but had to sweat out a green-white-checkered finish after Kenny Habul triggered a course-wide caution 2 laps to the chequered flag. It was not an issue as Allmendinger sprinted away on a lap 93 restart and stayed in front for those two final laps.

McDowell was second and Sam Hornish Jr. grabbed the series points lead after finishing third. Max Papis and Brian Vickers rounded out the top five.

AJ Allmendinger lost the lead after  a pit stop onlap 58, and took it back five laps later. He kept his No. 22 Ford Mustang in front after a lap 67 restart and cruised to his second NASCAR Nationwide road-course win in this season.

Allmendinger started second and took the lead eight laps after the green flag. He led 27 straight laps midway through the race and was in front for the final 29. He also won the Johnsonville Sausage 200 Presented by Menards at Road America, his only other NASCAR Nationwide start this season. That makes it 2 X 2.

Hornish Jr. started the race three points behind series leader Austin Dillon but left Mid-Ohio with a 13-point lead with 11 races remaining. Dillon, who finished 21st, dropped into a tie for third with Regan Smith, who spun early in the day and fell out of contention.

Elliott Sadler jumped ahead of both of them to take over second in the standings. Now Elliott is two points ahead of the two. Brian Vickers remained fifth in the points.

Photos Credit: NASCAR

 

ROAD COURSE RINGERS CONVERGE “EN MASSE” ON MID-OHIO

August 15, 2013 – Racing on road courses requires a unique set of skills that don’t always translate well into for a driver groomed on the oval tracks common throughout North America. While some drivers competing fulltime in NASCAR’s three national series have proven they have the chops for both, others are what one would describe as road-racing specialists or “ringers.”

When the NASCAR Nationwide Series arrives at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, for the Nationwide Children’s Hospital 200 on Saturday afternoon, there will be plenty of road-course ringers on hand.

The road-racing specialists currently entered in the race are Ron Fellows, Stanton Barrett, Michael McDowell, AJ Allmendinger, Max Papis, Owen Kelly, Tomy Drissi and Marcos Ambrose. Ambrose is the only driver in the group currently competing fulltime in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

The eight have a combined nine victories, 27 top fives, 34 top 10s and seven poles at road courses on the NNS schedule. Ambrose and Fellows lead the way with four victories apiece, followed by Allmendinger, who posted his only NNS road-course victory earlier this season at Road America.

Source: NASCAR

KYLE BUSCH HOLDS OFF BRAD KESELOWSKI FOR CUP WIN AT THE GLEN

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – August 12, 2013 – The third time may have been the charm for Kyle Busch, but it was a jinx for pole winner Marcos Ambrose.

Having surrendered the lead late in the last two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Watkins Glen International, Busch reversed the trend Sunday in winning the Cheez-It 355 at the 2.45-mile road course by .486 seconds over runner-up Brad Keselowski.

Ambrose had the race in hand, having led 51 of the first 61 laps, until an inopportune caution in the middle of a pit stop cycle dropped him back to 12th for a restart on Lap 64 of 90. Busch grabbed the lead when Ambrose came to pit road under yellow on Lap 62 and held it the rest of the way.

A wreck on Lap 85 ended Ambrose’s bid for a third straight win at the Glen.

Martin Truex Jr. ran third, followed by Carl Edwards and Juan Pablo Montoya. Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch and AJ Allmendinger completed the top 10.

Busch, who was already on pit road when the fifth caution changed the race on Lap 60, nevertheless had to survive a succession of restarts in the final 15 laps before edging Keselowski for the victory in a two-lap shootout. Busch collected his third win of the season, his second at the Glen and the 27th of his career–but nothing about it was easy.

And he can thank Keselowski for resisting the temptation to move him out of the way in the final two corners.

“It was just run as hard as you can, drive your car, try not to worry about what’s behind, whatever happens, happens–we’ll deal with it,” Busch said. “I commend Brad for doing a better job this year at bringing home a cleaner race.

“I felt we ran really hard there those last couple laps. I couldn’t get away from him. My car wouldn’t turn through the corners as well as I needed it to. I just couldn’t get the front tires to bite, and so he could catch me through the corners. But in the braking zones and exiting the corners, I felt like I was really strong and could get away from him.”

Last year, Keselowski spun Busch in Turn 3 with fewer than two laps left, as the cars slid on a glaze of oil. This race was a completely different matter, Keselowski said.

“I could have dumped Kyle and won the race,” said the defending Cup champion, who climbed to eighth in the series standings on the strength of the runner-up finish. “That stuff goes back and forth, and I’m sure someone in the tabloid side of the media will make a big deal about that, but it won’t be me, because I know I did the right thing…

“It doesn’t mean there isn’t temptation, but there’s a level of respect and a code of honor that you have to have as a man.”

The race turned on a dime when Aric Almirola’s Ford nosed into a tire barrier after a blowing a tire on Lap 60 to cause a caution that interrupted a cycle of pit stops and knocked Ambrose out of the lead. Kyle Busch, Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Clint Bowyer and Kurt Busch had already made their final stops, and that quintet led the field to green on Lap 64.

In fact, Dave Rogers, Kyle Busch’s crew chief, credited his race engineers with the call to bring the driver of the No. 18 Toyota to pit road on Lap 59 before NASCAR threw the yellow for Almirola’s incident.

“We weren’t sure exactly where we were fuel-mileage-wise, so we were going to push to Lap 60, and I’ve actually got to give credit to my two engineers,” Rogers said. “They got talking, and they saw some people sliding around. Steve Hoegler, one of the engineers, said ‘There’s fluid on the track; you’d better get him in.’

“So it was a last-minute call to get Kyle on pit road, and the next thing you know, there was a caution, so it worked out great.”

Absent a threat from Ambrose, Busch pulled away to a lead of more than two seconds before caution for debris slowed the field for the sixth time on Lap 77. The race restarted on Lap 81, with Busch, Keselowski, Truex and Bowyer in the top four spots.

Busch’s work, however, was far from over. After the restart, a wild wreck involving Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne and Dale Earnhardt Jr. brought out the seventh caution and required another restart on Lap 85.

Contact between Max Papis’ Chevrolet and Ambrose’s Ford ignited an accident on the restart lap, with Brian Vickers’ No. 55 Toyota also collected in the melee. Forced to lead the field to green for the third time in 15 laps, Busch got away on the restart and held off Keselowski in a battle that intensified on the final circuit.

The wildly fluctuating fortunes of Jeff Gordon hit another low point at the Glen. Gordon pulled up behind Denny Hamlin’s Toyota as the cars climbed through the esses on Lap 14. Gordon’s Chevy twitched left into the Turn 4 guard rail, slid across the track and nosed into the barrier on the opposite side.

The four-time Cup champion lost 23 laps in the garage as his team repaired the car. Though Gordon returned to the track on Lap 37, he finished 36th and fell out of the top 10 in the series standings.

Notes: Not that there was any suspense surrounding Jimmie Johnson’s quest to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup for the 10th straight season, but the series leader clinched at least a wild-card spot in the Chase with his eighth-place finish…

Max Papis ran 15th subbing for injured Tony Stewart, keeping the No. 14 Chevrolet in the second provisional wild-card spot for the owners’ Chase

Credit: NASCAR