AJ Allmendinger Tag

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor With the announcement that Greg Biffle was leaving Roush Fenway Racing after the 2016 season, the inevitable has happened and the team announced on Tuesday that they would field only two cars for the 2017 season after fielding three for the past four seasons. Returning to the team next season will be Trevor Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. to field the No. 6 and No. 17 cars, respectively. Bayne will once again have crew chief Matt Puccia at the helm, while Stenhouse will have aRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor After 500 miles around the historic Darlington Raceway last Sunday, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Richmond for the final regular season race that will set the 16 driver field for the Chase with Saturday night’s running of the Federated Auto Parts 400. Often described as the perfectly designed race track by drivers, the 0.75 mile track lends itself to not only short track characteristics of beating and banging, but also the characteristics of a larger track with the side by side racing thatRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Since being added to the NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule in 2010, Road America has been one of the tracks on the circuit that tends to provide drivers with their first NASCAR wins and the tradition continued on Saturday afternoon. In the first six events at the track, three of those went to drivers who scored their first NASCAR wins, with Nelson Piquet, Jr. becoming the first in the 2012 event, followed by AJ Allmendinger in 2013, and Brendan Gaughan in 2014. As the NASCAR SprintRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BRISTOL, Tenn. – For most of the final 200 laps of Sunday’s rain-interrupted Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Kevin Harvick was where he needed to be – out front and in control of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Behind Harvick, who took the checkered flag 1.933 seconds ahead of runner-up Ricky Stenhouse Jr., the race was often out of control, as the essence of traditional Bristol made an emphatic appearance at the .533-mile concrete short track. Harvick’s victoryRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – Denny Hamlin, winner of Sunday’s Cheez-It 355 at the Glen, entertained a sold-out grandstand with a celebratory burnout that trailed a plume of smoke the entire length of the frontstretch at Watkins Glen International. But Hamlin’s smoke show—with a bad back, no less—paled in comparison to the fireworks that preceded the checkered flag, Hamlin’s first at a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series road course. The race was in doubt until the final corner, with Martin Truex Jr. pressuring Hamlin, who ledRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor The competitiveness of AJ Allmendinger and the small JTG/Daugherty Racing team has been one of the most pleasant surprises of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. After a 13th-place finish last week at Daytona, Allmendinger found himself 19th in the championship standings, just 16 points from the Chase cutoff. However, Allmendinger’s championship aspirations took a huge beating in Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway. The night, which eventually spiraled out of control, started with optimism, as Allmendinger lined up from the 19th starting spot. But afterRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Heading into Saturday night’s race at Kentucky Speedway, there were a lot of unknowns with the newly repaved and reconfigured track surface, but it didn’t take long for the track to claim its first victims. Jimmie Johnson, who had never won at Kentucky in five previous starts, had troubles with the track from the time his No. 48 team unloaded, spinning out and crashing his primary car in practice and having to break out his backup car for the race. Though Johnson would be ableRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service SONOMA, Calif. – Is Tony Stewart having fun yet? In his last year of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing, Stewart came to Sonoma Racing asserting on Friday he wasn’t having much fun driving a Sprint Cup car. That all changed in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at the 1.99-mile road course, where Stewart bulldozed Denny Hamlin into the outside wall in Turn 11, executing a dramatic last-lap pass for his first victory since June 2, 2013 at Dover. In the three years since that victory,Read More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Heading into Sunday’s race at Sonoma Raceway, one driver at the top of everyone’s list of potential winners was AJ Allmendinger, who has run exceptionally well on the 12-turn California road course over the years only to have lost the race for one reason or another. With a second place start, Allmendinger looked to be in prime position to make the most of the race in an effort to score his first win at the track and moved into the lead over polesitter Carl EdwardsRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service SONOMA, Calif. – Carl Edwards ran a lightning-fast lap in the first round of Saturday’s knockout qualifying at Sonoma Raceway—and it worried him. “After that first lap—I have to be honest—I sat here and thought, ‘Man, I’m really going to screw this up on the second one,’ ‘cause the first one was really good, but it held on for the pole, and so I’m really excited.” Edwards toured the 1.99-mile road course in 1 minute, 14.392 seconds (96.301 mph) in the first round andRead More