Strong showing for Richard Petty Motorsports at Infineon
AJ Allmendinger was one of the three out of four drivers at Richard Petty Motorsports to finish in the top 10 at Infineon Raceway. // Lee Holmes, NASCAR Scene
SONOMA, Calif. – Richard Petty Motorsports enjoyed a strong showing at Infineon Raceway Sunday, and not just because of Kasey Kahne’s win. AJ Allmendinger finished seventh in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Toyota/Save Mart 350 and Elliott Sadler was 10th to give the organization three teams in the top 10.
Teammate Reed Sorenson had a parts failure and finished 40th.
Allmendinger endured an early off-road excursion after he failed to complete an early turn.
But he managed to rally throughout the remainder of the race and snare the top finish.
"A tough day early for us in the race,” he said. “I was just clicking off laps when the car just locked up and sent me into the gravel. We ended up cutting down a left-front tire and had to come in under green to pit.
“After being the fastest car in happy hour yesterday, we knew that our Best Buy Dodge was going to be fast today. Just a weird deal with the car locking up like that. But, we fought back hard and earned a seventh-place finish which is awesome. We’ll take it.”
The finish is Allmendinger’s best since his third-place run in the season-opening Daytona 500 and is his third top-10 of the season.
Sadler also enjoyed a strong showing.
He ran in the top 10 early in the race, spin, earned the lucky dog and raced back into contention.
Not a bad turnaround.
"A great comeback …,” Sadler said. “Once we got back on the track, we were able to stay only a lap down, get the lucky dog and raced our way inside the top-[10] with 10 laps to go. I’ve got to give credit to my crew guys for hanging in there and getting me back on the track as fast as they did. It was an awesome job.
“You just have to keep digging on these road courses because track position and fuel mileage is always a factor. A great day for Richard Petty Motorsports.”
The team was formed in the offseason as Petty Enterprises and Richard Petty joined forces with what was then known as Gillett Evernham Motorsports.
For Petty, watching these teams Sunday showed just how far they had come. Not only did he return to victory lane for the first time since 1999, he also saw a lot of promise in the organization as a whole.
“After watching today and watching the guys run and having two other cars in the top 10, this just really made us feel good because we've run good enough to win a couple or three races, but circumstances just haven't been on our side,” Petty said. “Today it really looked bad to begin with because we got two of our cars, one of them had trouble and they had to come in the garage area, and the other two got a lap down, not no fault of their own, but it just happened.
“They was able to catch it back up and run seventh and 10th. So from Richard Petty Motorsports it was really a good day. I think going in on Monday morning, I think all of us will be welcomed home a little bit more than what we have been for the last few weeks.”
