Texas II Race Preview

AJ ALLMENDINGER
No. 43 Immortals/Best Buy Ford Fusion

• Allmendinger has made seven starts at Texas Motor Speedway
• Allmendinger enters the race in 16th place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings
• Allmendinger’s best finish (10th) at the track came in 2009

Allmendinger on Texas Motor Speedway: “I feel like every time we go to Texas we improve and learn something we can apply the next time we go. Texas is a fast 1.5-mile track. We’ve got a really cool looking paint scheme with Immortals on the car this weekend and I’d love to see the No. 43 car in Victory Lane Sunday. We had a Top-20 finish at Texas in the spring, so I’m
hopeful for good things this weekend in the Immortals/Best Buy Ford.”

Crew Chief Greg Erwin’s Keys to Getting Around Texas Motor Speedway: “You carry a lot of speed into the corners at Texas. It’s a really fast track, especially in the fall with the cooler temperatures. We are taking what has been our best car the second half of the season to Texas this weekend. We had good runs at Atlanta and Dover with this car and a Top-10 finish at
Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway a couple of weeks ago. I have a lot of confidence that we will be fast this weekend in our Immortals/Best Buy Ford.

“In the middle of Turns 1 and 2 and Turns 3 and 4 there are bumps on the race track where the tunnels go underneath. It puts a little hump in the center of the track and there is an opportunity for the car to bottom out at those places if we get overly aggressive, so we’ll have to be careful of that. All in all we are excited about this weekend and really looking forward to going to Texas.”

Chassis History: The No. 43 RPM team has prepared chassis No. 710 for this weekend’s event at Texas Motor Speedway. This Immortals/ Best Buy Ford has been previously run this season at Texas, Charlotte, Atlanta, Indianapolis and Dover.

Notes: Allmendinger has seven NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at Texas Motor Speedway and three Top-15 finishes at the
1.5-mile track. Allmendinger’s best finish (10th) came at the fall race at Texas in 2009. He has completed 2,143 of 2,338 laps attempted at the track and has an average starting position of 17.7.

Allmendinger’s car will have a different look this weekend as Relativity Media is co-sponsoring the No. 43 Ford Fusion alongside Best Buy to promote its upcoming 3D epic adventure film, Immortals, which is scheduled to be in theatres 11/11/2011.

The 10th of 12 Best Buy “Re-Tailgate” events will occur Sunday. A combination of 100 premiere Best Buy customers and Best Buy employees will be invited to a private tailgating event. The guests will get the opportunity to meet Allmendinger, and attendees will be given a pit tour before enjoying the race from their grandstand seats.

Four Star General Mark A. Welsh III will be attending the race this weekend on behalf of the U.S. Air Force. General Welsh is Commander, U.S. Air Forces in Europe; Commander, Air Component Command, Ramstein; and Director, Joint Air Power Competency Center, Ramstein Air Base, Germany. He is responsible for Air Force activities, conducted through 3rd Air Force, in an area of operations covering almost one-fifth of the globe. This area includes 51 countries in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, and the Arctic and Atlantic oceans with a total population reaching nearly one billion people speaking more than 80 languages. He also has administrative control of 17th Air Force, providing support, logistics and resources to U.S. Africa Command.

Credit - Richard Petty Motorsports PR