AJ Allmendinger's limited Sprint Cup schedule remains the same - for now
Richard Petty says that nothing has changed about driver AJ Allmendinger’s schedule for the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup season – at least for right now.
Allmendinger, who is scheduled to attempt a minimum of eight races for the new Richard Petty Motorsports team but could run more depending on sponsorship, finished third in Sunday’s Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway after racing his way into the event in last Thursday’s Gatorade Duel qualifier.
Asked on Tuesday if the former Champ Car driver’s performance could lead to more starts, team co-owner Petty said the plan hasn’t changed.
“Right now it’s eight automatic, OK, and like I say, if things work out then definitely we’ve got eight automatic and then we’ve got a couple more along in the middle of the season,” Petty said during a conference call with reporters. “So we might speed them up and then fill in somewhere else.”
Even though last Sunday’s outing might not mean more races, Petty was pleased with Allmendinger’s effort and believes it certainly could help the team's quest to attract additional sponsorship.
“It’s got be a plus plus,” Petty said. “I think we’ve got sponsorship for about 10 or 12 races right now … and we feel like if he can continue to show promise and do somewhat close to as good as he did at Daytona, then we feel very confident that we’ll be able to pick up different sponsors over a period of time to be able to continue running him.
“But if he keeps running like at Daytona, I’ll just start running him out of my pocket as far as that’s concerned because he’s just going to bring the money back in.”
