AJ Allmendinger still searching for a ride for 2009 season
CONCORD, N.C. – AJ Allmendinger says that while he knows what he’ll be doing for the remainder of 2008, he still doesn’t have anything finalized for next year.
Allmendinger is driving the No. 00 Michael Waltrip Racing car this weekend at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and then will drive the No. 10 Gillett Evernham Motorsports car for the final five races of the 2008 Sprint Cup season.
“I want to do a great job for both teams,” Allmendinger said Friday. “I’m still looking for work for next year and this is kind of an audition of sorts. If you can come here and make an impression on both teams and they like you and think you did a good job, you never know what can open up and get a chance at it.
“This weekend, my ultimate goal is to get the No. 00 closer to the top 35 if not back in.”
Allmendinger has talked with Chip Ganassi Racing about its No. 41 car opening but he said he hasn’t heard too much the last couple of weeks.
“That’s kind of been a little bit quiet, but until the seat is taken, I hope I’m always a candidate,” he said. “I’ve got no contracts, no obligations to anybody except for these six races, and that’s kind of the way I’m taking it.”
A winner of five Champ Car races in 2006 during a year where he got fired before rattling off those victories with another team, Allmendinger is used to the fickle nature of the business.
He has spent the last two years at Red Bull Racing, which tried to turn him into a stock-car racer. Allmendinger, who has competed in 21 of the 30 races this year, is 36th in the driver standings.
“Am I sad about [leaving Red Bull]? Yeah, I’m a little sad about it,” Allmendinger said. “I thought we had some great things.
“But Red Bull has done a lot of great things in my career for me. We still are working on a relationship over the next few years about still being a [personal services] driver/athlete. That could be a possibility. You can’t be bitter in this sport. Is there a little chip on my shoulder? Sure. I want to go out there and prove them wrong. I’ve been in that position before in Champ Car so I’m looking forward to trying to do it again.”
But for what team?
“People are calling my phone – that’s always a good thing,” Allmendinger said. “If I can just go out there and keep doing the job that I’ve been doing, everything will fall into place.”
Allmendinger did say that he was a little bit bitter that he couldn’t finish the season with Red Bull and said he that he didn’t ask to be released early to look for another ride. His best finish came in his last race at Red Bull as he placed ninth a couple of weeks ago at Kansas.
“I would never have anybody have their best career finish and then decide to take a week off after that,” he said. “That’s the only thing that frustrated me. I wanted to stay in it, do the rest of the year and the only thing we asked is if I found something and it worked for both parties to jump out [of the car], we could do that.
“On the other side of it, I got to see what my stock was. A lot of people called me and I got two great opportunities out of it.”
