NASCAR Driver Profile 2010: AJ Allmendinger

AJ Allmendinger started 2009 strong and ended 2009 stronger, now he just needs to maintain that through the entire 2010 NASCAR season. Allmendinger opened the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup without a guaranteed ride and no provisionals racing his first season with Richard Petty Motorsports.

A strong showing in the Daytona 500 gets Allmendinger a full time ride.
Allmendinger had a strong showing in the Daytona Gatorade Qualifying race, racing his way into the show, and he made the most of it, finishing third in the Daytona 500. That race was the catalyst that launched Allmendinger into a full time ride for the NASCAR Sprint Cup season in the #44 Richard Petty Motorsports Dodge.

The RPM team switches to Ford for 2010.
Although Daytona was Allmendinger's only top five in 2009, he would have three more top tens, Martinsville ninth, Dover seventh, and Infineon seventh. For the last three races Allmendinger's team switched to a Yates Racing prepared Ford, under the Richard Petty Motorsports banner. Allmendinger felt comfortable immediately switching from the Dodge and showed his fellow teammates he could compete at the highest level in NASCAR.

Allmendinger looks good in the Ford in final 3 races.
Allmendinger finished 10th in his first race in the Ford at Texas Motor Speedway and followed that up with a 13th place finish at Phoenix International Raceway. Allmendinger finished up the season on a positive note bringing home a 10th place finish, for his sixth top ten of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup season.

Allmendinger wins 3 races in a row in CART & contends for the title.
The path for Allmendinger to NASCAR Sprint Cup, was through open wheel, racing in the now defunct CART Series. Allmendinger contended for a championship in the 2006 CART Series and at one time, rattled off three consecutive wins. At the conclusion of the 2006 season, Team Red Bull approached Allmendinger to race in NASCAR Sprint Cup with their new Toyota team.

Team Red Bull shows little patience with Allmendinger.
Allmendinger suffered through serious growing pains with the new team and was relegated to becoming a spectator for most of the season. Allmendinger only raced in 17 races in the 2007 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, missing races due to owner points and missing others as Mike Skinner qualified and raced the car.

Allmendinger made improvements in 2008 but it was more of the same finishing 36th in the points and he only scored two top tens. Allmendinger had by far his best finish in the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, taking 24th. Allmendinger also showed he can still wheel it around a road course, scoring a seventh place, in 2009 at Infineon Raceway, near his hometown of Los Gatos.

Mike Shiplett will head the #43 team in 2010.
The 2010 version of the Allmendinger team will feature Mike Shiplett as crew chief, as Allmendinger takes over the famous #43 in the Richard Petty stable. With the success towards the end of the 2009 season, Allmendinger could be looking for a top 15 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup final standings.

Shiplett began his career as a crew chief in 1995, after racing for several years and maintaining his own equipment. Shiplett's first job was with Liberty Racing in Ohio. Liberty was one of the original NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series teams and Shiplett worked with drivers Butch Miller and the late Kenny Irwin from 1995 to 1998.

Shiplett soon moved over to Ray Evernham's operation and was car chief for the #9 and #19 teams. In 2007 Shiplett was crew chief for Kasey Kahne, during his six win campaign and towards the end of the season was moved over to #10 car. 2008 was Shiplett's second full season as a crew chief and he endured a tough season, failing to qualify for races but making the top 35 in points to secure provisionals for the first five races of 2009.

source:
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