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CUP: ‘Dinger To MWR
Written by: Tom Jensen   
10/06/2008 - 03:20 PM
Talladega, Ala.
 
AJ Allmendinger will be driving the No. 00 Champion Mortgage Toyota for MWR at Lowe's Motor Speedway. (Jason Smith/Getty Images Photo) ยป More Photos

AJ Allmendinger’s brush with unemployment proved to be mercifully brief. The Los Gatos, Calif. native will be back behind the wheel of a NASCAR Sprint Cup car Thursday at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, when he’ll try to qualify the Michael Waltrip Racing No. 00 Toyota Camry for the Bank of America 500.

Kenny Wallace drove the car to a 12th-place finish Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway to bring the No. 00 within 39 points of the coveted 35th place in Sprint Cup owner points. Only the cars in the top 35 are guaranteed starting spots each week.

“I look forward to it and I think this is a great opportunity,” Allmendinger said. “Over the past couple of months the organization has really picked up with how everyone has been running. Hopefully, I can go out there and do a good job and get the No. 00 Champion Mortgage Toyota team back inside the top 35.”

“Finishing 12th with Kenny was the strongest finish we have had and that was nice, but at the same time Robby Gordon had a little better finish than we did so we didn’t gain any points on him,” said the team’s crew chief, Peter Sospenzo, of the Talladega effort. “Obviously we are looking forward to going to Lowe’s Motor Speedway because we had a productive test there. We were good in qualifying and race trim. We feel confident about going back. AJ’s a good driver and we know he can get everything out of the car.”

Allmendinger has made two top five and six top 10 starts in 21 races so far this season. His career-best finish of ninth was scored two races ago at Kansas Speedway while driving the No. 84 Red Bull Toyota Camry entry.

During the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Allmendinger started 27th and finished 20th.

“We didn’t do as well as we liked, but we were pretty fast,” Allmendinger said. “I feel comfortable around Lowe’s Motor Speedway because it is a track that I have been able to race around a lot in my career.”

Team
owner Michael Waltrip said there could be other drivers behind the wheel of the No. 00 this season, which started the year with Michael McDowell, but has seen Mike Skinner, Wallace and now Allmendinger take turns behind the wheel. “We’re still closely evaluating the remaining Cup races,” Waltrip said. 'We’re moving in the direction of having multiple drivers based on their experiences at particular tracks.”

Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor 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 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

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