Kansas Preview

AJ ALLMENDINGER
No. 43 Insignia HDTV Ford Fusion

• AJ Allmendinger has made two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at Kansas Speedway
• Allmendinger scored a ninth-place finish on the 1.5-mile oval in 2008
• After 28 races, Allmendinger holds down 21st place in the NSCS driver point standings

AJ Allmendinger on the Season Nearing a Close: “I love racing, so I always hate when the season ends. I’m not looking at that. We’ve got eight more races to go, so we’ve got a lot of work to do. I still feel like we can get to the top 16 or 17 in points and if we keep running like this, maybe we can sneak a win in there. We still have two months before I’ve got to worry about the season ending.”

Do you Think You’re Inching Closer to Finding Consistency? “I think we’re getting there. To say, can we go out and win one? We’ve got to keep getting better. We’ve got to be consistent inside the top 10. Last week in Dover was big for that. To be able to lead so many laps. I think that was quadruple the laps I’ve ever led, combined in Cup. We’ve just got to keep getting there. Of course, winning is the ultimate goal and that’s what we want to do, but we have to go baby steps here. We have to be one of those cars that are inside the top 10 every weekend and then we’ll get there.”

Crew Chief Mike Shiplett’s Thoughts on Kansas: “For this weekend in Kansas, we will take kind of our Chicagoland Speedway setup and use some of the information and setup we had at Michigan International Speedway to create the setup that we think we will best for the Insignia HDTV Ford Fusion. We’ll also look back at some of the issues that we had at Kansas last year because we had AJ driving the No. 44 car for Richard Petty Motorsports there. We’ll take what we learned from Chicago this season and start from there to begin.”

Chassis History: The No. 43 RPM team led by crew chief Mike Shiplett has prepared chassis No. 294 for this weekend’s event at Kansas Speedway. This chassis has been run on two previous occasions this season. Allmendinger drove this particular Insignia HDTV Ford Fusion to a 14th-finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the spring and had an 11th-place result with it in the first race this season at Michigan International Speedway.

Notes: Prior to last weekend’s race at Dover International Speedway, 28-year-old AJ Allmendinger had led 43 laps in his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career. Allmendinger nearly quadrupled that last weekend, leading 143 laps in the 400-lap event before a cut tire forced him to give up the lead and make an unscheduled stop. The Insignia HDTV team rallied to finish 10th in the event.

AJ Allmendinger will take part in the Tom Murphy Memorial Golf Classic at the National Golf Club of Kansas City, located in Parkville, Mo., this Thursday before heading to the track on Friday. Allmendinger will join RPM teammate Kasey Kahne and several other NASCAR drivers to take part in a ceremonial first tee shot to start the event. A.J. Allmendinger also will visit with media and tournament participants.

Credit - Richard Petty Motorsports PR