Martinsville Preview

AJ ALLMENDINGER
No. 43 Charter Ford Fusion
• Allmendinger has made five NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway where his best finish is 9th (2009)
• Allmendinger’s No. 43 Ford will be sponsored by Charter this weekend
• The No. 43 team spent Tuesday and Wednesday participating in a NASCAR sanctioned test session at Charlotte Motor Speedway

Allmendinger’s Take On Martinsville: “Martinsville is a cool track with a lot of history. The No. 43 has a lot of history there too with Richard (Petty) having the most wins. We have Charter on board the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford Fusion this weekend so it’d be great to get right up front and end the day with a good finish.

“We actually tested our Martinsville car last week at the little track at Rockingham (N.C.). I think all of our Richard Petty Motorsports teams were able to take away a lot of notes and information from that test and of course we learned some things from this last race at Bristol as well to be prepared for this Sunday’s race. We ran and finished in the top-10 in this race a year ago. I feel like if we can find a good rhythm and not make any little mistakes on pit road, this No. 43 team will have a good race.”

Thoughts From Crew Chief Mike Shiplett: “I think it’s good we have Bristol under our belts heading into this weekend’s race at Martinsville. AJ felt like he found a pretty good rhythm during the longer green flag runs last Sunday so I think we found some things that will help us out this weekend.

“Martinsville is one of those places we visit where one of the hardest challenges is pit road. It’s pretty narrow getting on and off so we’ll have to be careful and make sure we don’t make any mistakes there. We are just shy of the top 20 in points. We’re working on building more consistency in our runs and if we can get that, the points and everything else will all fall into place.”

Chassis History: Chassis No. 276 has been prepared by Shiplett and the No. 43 Charter crew for this weekend’s race at Martinsville Speedway. This Ford Fusion ran as the No. 44 for Richard Petty Motorsports in the November race at Phoenix International Raceway last season.

Support The Paralyzed Veterans of America: There are several ways you can help support the PVA, a veterans service organization established in 1946 that helps our military heroes who have experienced spinal cord injury or dysfunction. Enter a raffle to win a Jeep CJ-2A Willys restored by Petty's Garage. Visit pva.org/jeep. And don’t miss out on the second annual King’s Cup—Karting For A Cause event hosted by Richard Petty on Tuesday, May 25. To learn more about how you can participate in the King’s Cup, visit: www.pva.org/gokart.