The #44 Hunt Brothers Pizza Dodge Charger finished 37th in Saturday night’s Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway after a mechanical issue with AJ’s brakes required a 48 lap visit to the garage area. After such a dour turn of events, you would think that I would be depressed about Saturday night’s results. But nothing could be further from the truth, and I want to tell you why I’m not.
First of all, AJ had a great car at Bristol. Not just a good car, but a great car. Granted, he didn’t get a chance to show it too much, but it is still a good feeling when you know that your driver is in equipment that is capable of winning races. That probably sounds like a reach to some of you who didn’t follow him Saturday night, but believe me when I say that winning could have been a possibility.
Of course it takes a lot of things to fall into place before you can hoist that trophy in Victory Lane. He might have been involved in a crash, or been more conservative on an adjustment and not gotten the car as good, or just had track position bite him in the ass with a strategy call. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that he had a great car, both before and after his unwanted visit to the garage area.
AJ didn’t qualify the #44 Dodge as well as he wanted to, but he could have done worse than a 19th place starting position. When the green flag flew, he reported that the car was tight in the corners and he was running the high line to keep up momentum. By the time the first caution came out, he had moved up to 14th place, and by lap 30 he was in the top 10.
Things were looking very promising by lap 135, and AJ was running solidly in the 12th position. Crew chief Mike Shiplett was planning on some more adjustments to help free up the car when AJ suddenly radioed in that he had a flat tire. He came in to change tires, but unbeknownst to the crew, the #44 Hunt Brothers Pizza entry had broken a right front brake rotor, which had come off and was what cut down the tire.
As AJ was forced to come into the garage to fix the brakes, I continued to listen to the communication from the garage area. The crew was calm and efficient as they quickly went about their repairs, and after changing the left front brakes because they were cracking as well, AJ was sent back out onto the track.
He quickly pulled away from the leader after coming out right in front of him, but at the time I attributed that to fresh tires. After the next caution flew and the team made some adjustments on pit road, AJ elected to move to the back of the field to stay out of the way. After letting the cars in front of him get sorted out a bit from the double file restart, he then decided to do a little racing and see how the adjustments did – in other words, using the rest of the race as a practice session.
As he picked off one car after another at the back of the field, I eventually switched my Trackpass PitCommand over so I could look at lap times. Amazingly enough, AJ was running top ten times even as he was mired in slower traffic. In fact, he stayed ahead of the leader the entire time he was on the racetrack, never once losing a lap either before or after coming out of the garage. And that is really saying something, considering he started at the back of the field on each restart.
So I’m not delusional in thinking that he had a car that was fast enough to win. In fact, on the second to the last restart AJ laid back about a half a lap when the green flag flew to see just how good the car was after all the adjustments they had made on it. He wanted to be in clean air like the leaders, and there were not enough laps left in the race to worry about getting lapped.
And guess what I saw on my Trackpass in those handful of laps before the caution flew again. He was not only as fast as Kyle Busch and Mark Martin – he was faster.
Having a really great car is just one of the reasons why I wasn’t in a bad mood after the race in Bristol, though. To say that I am extremely proud to be an AJ Allmendinger fan would be a huge understatement. His attitude after his unfortunate brake problem is the very reason why I think he is a wonderful person in addition to being a phenomenal race car driver.
Being 48 laps down with not much of a chance to salvage anything better than a thirty something place finish could have demolished the morale of the 44 team. And we all know that morale and momentum are two big factors in success week in and week out. If the team had left Bristol in poor spirits and carried that clear through the off weekend, it might affect their performance when they arrive at Atlanta.
Instead of being sullen and grouchy on the radio after leaving the garage though, AJ chose to be upbeat and salvage what they could out of the evening. Don’t get me wrong, I have heard AJ be sullen and grouchy, and even worse – say absolutely nothing on the radio after having problems. It’s only natural when you experience disappointment. But AJ showed a lot of maturity and leadership by choosing not to react that way Saturday night.
I think one of the biggest things that AJ has going for him, besides being able to wheel a race car, is his charisma. He has a very likeable demeanor and a dynamic personality that draws people in. As he has gone through the ranks of open wheel racing and now into NASCAR, he can use that to his advantage.
AJ has car owners, sponsors, team management, and a crew who all strive to give him the very best of what they have. Not just for their own benefit, but because they want that for him. And he returns that loyalty ten-fold, proven by some of the chatter on the radio. He not only pumped up his crew, but during the red flag caution it was almost like listening to a Hunt Brothers Pizza commercial on the scanner.
I believe that with an organization that has complete confidence in his abilities, and now with a crew chief that AJ has confidence in as well, there are only good things ahead for them as a group. AJ repeatedly came on the radio Saturday night and praised his crew for their hard work and for the great pit stops.
AJ also shared an objective that he wants to work towards during the remainder of the 2009 season – something to motivate the guys even more. He wants to be the best team that Richard Petty Motorsports has. To not only have the best results out of the group, but to make the best adjustments, the best strategy calls, and to have the best pit crew as well.
It’s no secret that AJ isn’t happy with twenty something finishes. I’m not sure there is a driver out there on any given weekend that is completely happy with anything other than a win. But AJ’s goal is to run consistently in the top 10 and maybe even the top 5 each week, and to finish this year inside the top 20 in points – a position that is 220 points away.
With some of the flashes of brilliance that I have seen from the #44 team, and with a new engine coming possibly as soon as Atlanta, is that goal too far to reach? I don’t think so. How about you?
I agree with you. I was listening to their radio conversation via trackpass, and was very impressed with his atitude. At first when the flat tire happened and they were showing the brake part on the track, I was disappointed that he wasn't going to win. But from their radio conversations, and then seeing what the car really can do, it just amazed me. Hopefully, things get better and he does finally win a race!
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