Richard Petty Motorsports adds five events to AJ Allmendinger's schedule
Richard Petty Motorsports' AJ Allmendinger is 20th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings. // Tim Parks, NASCAR Scene
BRISTOL, Tenn. – AJ Allmendinger is confident that he not only will be rewarded next week with not having to worry about qualifying, he also will be awarded in future weeks with additional races to his original nine-race schedule for Richard Petty Motorsports.
Originally Allmendinger was going to run the first eight events through Phoenix next month, but the team has added the four following points races – Talladega, Richmond, Darlington and Lowe’s Motor Speedway – in addition to NASCAR's Sprint All-Star Race. The other race, which already was on his schedule, is the July race at Daytona.
Having pieced together sponsorship this year from Air Force, Valvoline, Charter, Harrah’s and LifeLock, the team has enough funds to keep Allmendinger in the seat at least through late May.
“Between a couple of companies coming on board and our results, we’ve been able to extend through the [Coca-Cola] 600,” Allmendinger said Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway. “You’ve got a lot of people who have come on board. Our results, Dodge has been happy with that so hopefully they will help us out, and get us through Charlotte and hopefully we can keep having results and continue on for more. … More than anything, it gives us a six-week period to keep working on [more sponsorship].”
Allmendinger has qualified for 10 consecutive events dating back to last season. At 20th in owner points, Allmendinger is all but assured he will remain in the top 35 heading into Martinsville next week, as he qualified at Bristol for his fifth consecutive race on speed – the only driver to do so in the first five races except for Tony Stewart, who had a past champion’s provisional if he needed it.
“These qualifying sessions are so tough and there’s so many things that you want to do during qualifying to change the car to get it to be better, but you’re so scared to mess yourself up,” he said. “It’s places like Bristol and if we were out at Martinsville next week, the times are so close and it’s such a fine line [between] being in and out, to make it in the race is good.
“To be decently high in the points, we’re happy with that. Hopefully from now on, we can focus on Fridays [on] working on race stuff then working on qualifying but not being stressed about it.”
Not only will Allmendinger not have a knot in his stomach, it will be the first time in two years that the organization won’t have to have a car qualify on speed when it goes to Martinsville.
“We really just focused on the basics – making sure we do a good job of sharing information between teams so if one of the [teams] hits on something, we can move it over,” said Vice President of Competition Mark McArdle. “We always view when we’ve got a car that has to qualify on speed, that’s the only important job on Friday.
“That’s the No. 1 focus for all four of the race teams, is to get that car in.”
The key, Allmendinger said, was getting into the Daytona 500, where he finished third.
“Making Daytona was a big deal to kickstart the season because the previous two years I hadn’t raced until this race here,” said Allmendinger, whose first race in the 2007 season was at Bristol and then in 2008 his first race was Talladega. “You’re always nervous about it.”
While he was third in the Daytona 500, Allmendinger has finishes of 29th, 33rd and 17th in the last three races.
“To be 20th in points, I’ve got to remember that this team only came together two weeks before the season started,” Allmendinger said. “I want more. I feel like we could be a little bit higher, but we’re learning each other.
“I’m looking forward to now that we’ve got all the qualifying stuff out of the way and we’re running the races and we’re not going to fall out of the top 35, we can just focus on racing every weekend and that is what this team needs.”
One thing that the extended schedule means is that Allmendinger, who won five Champ Car races the year before heading full time to NASCAR, won’t be able to compete in the Indianapolis 500.
“Indy was a second plan – that was if I wasn’t racing here,” Allmendinger said. “I want to be at Charlotte and be in the 600.”
