Kansas II Race Recap

AJ ALLMENDINGER
No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion

• AJ Allmendinger started in the 22nd position for the 272-lap event at Kansas Speedway
• Allmendinger finished in the race in the 25th position at the 1.5-mile track
• Unofficially, Allmendinger sits in 14th place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings

Race Summary: AJ Allmendinger qualified for the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway in the 22nd position, but had to drop to the rear of the field before the start of the race due to a NASCAR penalty. Though he was struggling a bit to find grip in the early laps of the event, Allmendinger gained several positions and was running in the 30th spot when the first caution flag of the day flew on Lap 21. Allmendinger relayed to Crew Chief Greg Erwin that the car was loose and sliding all over the race track, so Erwin and crew went to work on the Best Buy Ford making a wedge and air pressure adjustment and adding four fresh tires and fuel to the No. 43 car.

Though he was fighting the handling of his car, Allmendinger was able to hit his marks and worked his way up to the 25th spot by Lap 55. Erwin called Allmendinger into the pits under a routine green flag stop on Lap 66 for a track bar adjustment, four tires and fuel. A slow pit stop under green flag conditions resulted in Allmendinger falling a lap down to the leaders on Lap 67.

After the rest of the field cycled through green flag pit stops, Allmendinger was scored in the 29th position and quickly communicated to his Richard Petty Motorsports crew that the previous pit stop had not helped the handling of the car and he was now fighting a tight condition through the corners. Fighting the handling of the car, coupled with a speeding violation during a Lap 131 green flag pit stop which resulted in a pass though penalty caused Allmendinger to fall three laps down to the leaders by the midpoint of the race.

The Best Buy team fought a variety of handling issues the remainder of the race, but Erwin and crew never gave up and made a plethora of chassis adjustments during the ensuing pit stops.

Though the adjustments made to the car during the late stages of the race appeared to help the No. 43 machine’s handling issues slightly, Allmendinger was only able to get one of his laps back and finished the race in the 25th position, the first car two laps down.

Allmendinger sits in 14th place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings heading into next Saturday night’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.

Credit - Richard Petty Motorsports PR