In his three-year career at NASCAR’s top level, A.J. Allmendinger has rarely been at ease, so it is ironic that this week he has a chain of motels sponsoring his Richard Petty Motorsports Dodge.
And for the moment, at least, the Young Gun is sitting in a comfortable position—16th in the point standings with a 25th-place qualification effort in the books for Sunday’s Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Allmendinger started the 2009 season with a team that was not guaranteed a starting position for the first five races and did not have a sponsor lined up for the entire year, but he did not allow that to slow his efforts. In six short weeks that included one top-five finish, two top-10s and four top-20s, Allmendinger has gone from being just another driver in the field to sitting within 34 points of the coveted top 12 in the standings.
And yet his future is still uncertain.
“Maybe as long as we keep running well (we’re secure),” he said. “Right now, we’re good through the (Coca-Cola) 600. We had five more races just added. That’s a good thing.
“All I can do is go out there and run the wheels off it and try to keep this Dodge up front every weekend. As long as we do that, I hope everything else takes care of itself.”
His situation is all too familiar. Last year, Allmendinger spent nearly the entire season outside the top 35 in owner points and thus had to qualify on time every week. But then, as soon as he clawed his way into a guaranteed position—33rd in the standings on the strength of a ninth-place finish at Kansas Speedway—he was released from his Red Bull Racing ride and went to work for his current owner in a car that was not certain to make the show.
The anxiety might have gotten to another driver, but Allmendinger kept his poise.
For the last two weeks, composure has been a little easier to achieve because, for only the second time in his career, he does not have to worry about qualifying on speed.
“We know that we’re in the race with our Dodge Charger, and that takes some pressure off when you get to the track,” he said. “The pressure of having to qualify isn’t there.”
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