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CUP: A Ford In The ‘Dinger’s Future?
Written by: Tom Jensen   
11/11/2009
Charlotte, NC
 
AJ Allmendinger finished 10th Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, his fifth top-10 finish of the season. (Photo: LAT Photographic) ยป More Photos

As racing seasons go, they don’t get much stranger than the year that former Champ Car star AJ Allmendinger has had in 2009.

Allmendinger, who moved to NASCAR with Red Bull Racing for the 2007 season, was let go from that team late in ’08 to make way for Scott Speed, who hasn’t exactly set the world on fire as his replacement.

The 2009 season began with Allmendinger looking for a ride, finally inking a deal with Richard Petty Motorsports just in time for Daytona Speedweeks. There, Allmendinger scored a career-best third-place finish in the Daytona 500, an excellent start to the season.

But from that point on, the season turned out to be a struggle, both on and off the track. There was a full crew swap between RPM teams when Reed Sorenson was trying to figure out why he wasn’t running well.

RPM majority owner George Gillett, dogged by persistent rumors of financial problems, sold off his beloved Montreal Canadiens hockey team and agreed to a “merger” with Yates Racing for 2010.

Under terms of that deal, which has yet to be finalized, RPM will run three or four Fords next season, depending on final sponsorship. Allmendinger is expected to drive the famed No. 43 Ford Fusion in 2010, though that could change depending on sponsors and available free agents.

Allmendinger, meanwhile, was charged with DUI last month in Mooresville, N.C., not an especially smart career move when RPM icon Petty is a well-known teetotaler and one of the team’s other cars is sponsored by Budweiser.

And just this week, as part of the merger, RPM began laying off employees, with some estimates being that as many as 150 of RPM’s 250 workers could lose their jobs by the time the merger is finalized.

If that wasn’t enough weirdness, Allmendinger is spending the final three races of the season - including last weekend at Texas - driving Fords, while the other three RPM cars will still be the Dodge Chargers the team has run for most of the season.

Allmendinger got off to a good start with Ford on Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, where he finished 10th. It was his fifth top-10 finish of the season, allowing Allmendinger to hold onto 26th in points.

But he said there’s still a lot of work to do.

“It’s not as easy as just pulling the sticker off the car from a Dodge and putting it on as a Ford and just putting a new motor in the car,” said Allmendinger. “You’ve got to change the front of the car and change the rear of the car a little bit to match what the
Ford template is, and I think that’s really just want we’ve got to learn. The team built a brand-new car for Texas and we’ve got a car ready for Phoenix as well, but there is a learning curve.”

And as much as he’s itching to get his first Sprint Cup victory after 78 starts, the big thing for Allmendinger is getting a head start on the 2010 season.

“In a perfect world, you just want to go throw it on the race track and go, ‘There’s that Ford power. Everything feels great. The car is handling great. We’re gonna go win.’ But it’s not that easy because the competition is so tough, so I think in these last couple of races we want to learn a lot,” said Allmendinger.

“Obviously, we want to run well, but we just want to build a notebook going into next year and that’s really what it’s all about. We’ve got a great opportunity to learn and be ready for Daytona and really start the season when this 43 team next year will have had time to work together.”

That said, he’s hoping to finish the season on a high note.

“I’d still like to go out there and average in the top-15 these last three races and hopefully get a couple of top-10s and have something to be excited about in the off season,” said Allmendinger.

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED, and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com! Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or Speed Channel
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