AJ Allmendinger Tag

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor A.J. Allmendinger had a tough road ahead of him in Sunday’s Auto Club 400. Allmendinger recorded the 11th-fastest speed in qualifying, but before the race his team noticed a issue with a rear-end gear. “It was a good catch by our crew to see the burnt gear, from the sound of it; it wasn’t something you really notice, the detail they put into building these race cars and going over them was big. They caught it and saved our day,” Allmendinger said. The No. 47Read More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Writer After last Sunday’s barn burner of a finish in the Daytona 500, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series packs up and heads to Georgia for this weekend’s running of the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. As we head to Atlanta, we’ll take a statistical look at the track and which drivers should perform the best based on their past finishes in this edition of “Crunching the Numbers.” Track Facts Track Size: 1.54-mile quad-oval Banking/Turn 1 & 2: 24 degrees Banking/Turn 3 & 4:Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Most of the time, when an athlete talks about a “team victory,” it’s nothing more than a sports cliché. But Denny Hamlin’s win in Sunday’s Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway—by the closest margin in the history of the Great American Race—was a testament to the strength and solidarity of the Toyota teams of Joe Gibbs Racing and Furniture Row Racing, a JGR affiliate. In a wild last lap at the 2.5-mile superspeedway, Hamlin moved into the outside lane inRead More

Daytona Beach, Fla. (31 January 2016) – Setting a race-leading pace as the team looked to win a second title at the “World Center of Racing,” Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian delivered an impressive performance in the opening 285 laps of the 2016 Rolex 24 At Daytona. With new and returning commercial partnerships including Curb Records, Tire Kingdom, Florida Lottery, and Zak Products joining the No. 60 Honda-Ligier effort for the 54th running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the event was a highly anticipated one for the 2012 RolexRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The No. 60 Honda-powered Ligier JS P2 survived an early incident to hold the overall lead at the five-hour mark of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the season-opening race of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Teamed with three members of Michael Shank Racing’s 2012 winning team—NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver AJ Allmendinger, Ozz Negri and John Pew—Frenchman Olivier Pla passed Jonathan Bomarito for the top spot early in the fifth hour of competition and was still out front after anRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Driving a brand new Prototype developed and built in his native Russia, IndyCar driver Mikhail Aleshin won the top starting spot for the Rolex 24 at Daytona — with the ninth fastest time of Friday’s qualifying sessions at the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road course. Englishman Nick Tandy had the afternoon’s fastest lap, leading a Porsche sweep of the top two starting spots in the highly competitive GTLM Class, touring the course in 2:01.408 (105.561 mph) and edging fellow PorscheRead More

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Yes, Jeff Gordon celebrated his 93rd career victory in the Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500 at Martinsville Speedway. Yes, Gordon will compete for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Yes, there were tears of joy in Victory Lane for Gordon, who’s at the tail end of his final season in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. But Sunday’s race at Martinsville had so much more — most notably, “Matt Kenseth’s Revenge.” Long before Gordon held off Jamie McMurray in aRead More

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – At NASCAR Sprint Cup racing’s shortest track, Joey Logano’s torrid run just got longer. The winner of three straight races—constituting a sweep of the Contender Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup—Logano toured .526-mile Martinsville Speedway in 19.215 seconds (98.548 mph) in the final round of Friday’s knockout qualifying session to win the pole for Sunday’s Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500 (1:15 p.m. ET on NBCSN). Driving the No. 22 Team Penske Ford, Logano edged fellow Chase driver Martin Truex Jr. (98.487 mph) by .012Read More

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – AJ Allmendinger would like nothing better than a good, strong case of déjà vu. “Hopefully, we’re reliving last year,” Allmendinger said after putting his No. 47 JTG/Daugherty Chevrolet on the pole for Sunday’s Cheez-It 355 at The Glen (2 p.m. ET on NBCSN). Last year the road course ace barged into the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup by winning at Watkins Glen from the sixth starting position. On Saturday at the 2.45-mile road course, Allmendinger posted the only sub-69-second lap (1:08.993) to win the poleRead More

Today during a NASCAR media availability at Kansas Speedway, AJ Allmendinger revealed to media members that he has signed an extension to his driver agreement with JTG Daugherty Racing that will make him the driver of the No. 47 Chevrolet SS for at least through the 2020 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race season. “I have always said I have a verbal lifetime contract with JTG Daugherty Racing, but I want to announce today that I have officially signed a contract for a five year deal,” Allmendinger said. “It’s pretty coolRead More