Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
Bristol II Race Recap
AJ ALLMENDINGER
No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion
* AJ Allmendinger started in the 18th position for the 500-lap event at Bristol Motor Speedway
* Allmendinger, finished in the race in the 12th position at the .533-mile concrete oval
* Unofficially, Allmendinger sits in 14th place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings
Race Summary: AJ Allmendinger lined up in the 18th position for the start of the 266.5-mile event at Bristol Motor Speedway. Picking up several spots in the early laps of the race, Allmendinger relayed to Crew Chief Greg Erwin the Best Buy Ford was handling to his liking.
Running in the 15th position when the first caution flag of the 500-lap event flew on Lap 33, Erwin called Allmendinger into the pits for right side tires and fuel. The two tire call by the crew allowed Allmendinger to pick up a couple spots on pit road and Allmendinger restarted in the 13th position.
The No. 43 Ford quickly jumped up to 11th place in just three laps, but shortly after, Allmendinger communicated to Erwin that the two tire call upset the handling of the Best Buy machine and the car was loose. The No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford slipped back to the 16th spot before a Lap 105 caution allowed Erwin to again call Allmendinger into the pits, this time for four tires, fuel, wedge and air pressure adjustments.
Restarting in the 17th position, Allmendinger communicated to the crew that the changes made on the previous pit stop seemed to help the car’s handling issues. Running lap times as fast as the leader, Allmendinger began picking off cars one-by-one and had raced his way to 12th by Lap 235.
As the laps wore on, Allmendinger began to fight a tight handling car and the Best Buy crew made an array of chassis adjustments during the ensuing pit stops to try and correct the tight condition.
Though the Best Buy machine wasn’t exactly to Allmendinger’s liking, he was still able to run fast and consistent lap times and remain in or near the top 10 for the majority of the night. When the checkered flag flew at the half-mile oval, Allmendinger crossed the finish line in the 12th position.
The solid run at Bristol moved Allmendinger up one position in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings, and he heads into the 25th race of the season at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the 14th spot.
Allmendinger’s Thoughts After the Race: “Off of past results this was an awesome night. With like 200 to go we were running sixth or seventh and we were just kind of going back and forth between being too loose and too tight and we got it too tight the rest of the night. Everybody just runs the top and especially when you are tight you can’t do anything. I feel like 12th place, I am pleased with it, not thrilled but pleased with it.”
Credit - Richard Petty Motorsports PR
No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion
* AJ Allmendinger started in the 18th position for the 500-lap event at Bristol Motor Speedway
* Allmendinger, finished in the race in the 12th position at the .533-mile concrete oval
* Unofficially, Allmendinger sits in 14th place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings
Race Summary: AJ Allmendinger lined up in the 18th position for the start of the 266.5-mile event at Bristol Motor Speedway. Picking up several spots in the early laps of the race, Allmendinger relayed to Crew Chief Greg Erwin the Best Buy Ford was handling to his liking.
Running in the 15th position when the first caution flag of the 500-lap event flew on Lap 33, Erwin called Allmendinger into the pits for right side tires and fuel. The two tire call by the crew allowed Allmendinger to pick up a couple spots on pit road and Allmendinger restarted in the 13th position.
The No. 43 Ford quickly jumped up to 11th place in just three laps, but shortly after, Allmendinger communicated to Erwin that the two tire call upset the handling of the Best Buy machine and the car was loose. The No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford slipped back to the 16th spot before a Lap 105 caution allowed Erwin to again call Allmendinger into the pits, this time for four tires, fuel, wedge and air pressure adjustments.
Restarting in the 17th position, Allmendinger communicated to the crew that the changes made on the previous pit stop seemed to help the car’s handling issues. Running lap times as fast as the leader, Allmendinger began picking off cars one-by-one and had raced his way to 12th by Lap 235.
As the laps wore on, Allmendinger began to fight a tight handling car and the Best Buy crew made an array of chassis adjustments during the ensuing pit stops to try and correct the tight condition.
Though the Best Buy machine wasn’t exactly to Allmendinger’s liking, he was still able to run fast and consistent lap times and remain in or near the top 10 for the majority of the night. When the checkered flag flew at the half-mile oval, Allmendinger crossed the finish line in the 12th position.
The solid run at Bristol moved Allmendinger up one position in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings, and he heads into the 25th race of the season at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the 14th spot.
Allmendinger’s Thoughts After the Race: “Off of past results this was an awesome night. With like 200 to go we were running sixth or seventh and we were just kind of going back and forth between being too loose and too tight and we got it too tight the rest of the night. Everybody just runs the top and especially when you are tight you can’t do anything. I feel like 12th place, I am pleased with it, not thrilled but pleased with it.”
Credit - Richard Petty Motorsports PR
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Be Active In Sponsorship Support
DingerWorld Note: This is a post from the Fans for Richard Petty Motorsports website asking all AJ Allmendinger & Richard Petty Motorsports fans to step up again like you did last year and help out. Supporting the sponsors is a huge benefit for the companies that put their advertising money into the sport of NASCAR. Let Best Buy know how much we appreciate their sponsorship not only by emailing them, but also by shopping at their store and buying their products. Thank you to all the fans who helped out last year and I hope I can count on you pushing just as hard or harder this year.
Ok Friends, RPM needs our help
There's just about 1/4 of the season remaining and the people at Best Buy need to hear from us again. We have to let them know we want them to return to RPM and the famed 43 not only for next year, but also beyond 2012. Last year's late decision was nerve wracking; however, late sponsorship renewals affect and delay the planning and arrival of new retail marketing items, budgets, and team cohesiveness at all levels for the next season.
Best Buy and Petty are two iconic brands that equal fan loyalty, and while we have been loyal to both we would appreciate Best Buy's early renewal announcement for 2012 and beyond. In these less than positive economic hard times, even if they return and cut back one or two races, that's better than zero; however, adding more races to the sponsorship package benefits everyone.
This is the best year Best Buy has experienced since entering NASCAR with HAAS (#66). Gillett-Evernham (#19), and now with our famed RPM (#43) and when AJ wins it will be their first time as primary sponsor in Victory Lane. They had a little taste of victory already as sponsor associate with Marcos at Watkins Glen.
Please contact the following at Best Buy Executive Management, just like last year, showing them your support of their continued relationship with RPM, AJ, and our famed #43. The sooner they commit and announce, the more focused RPM can be with expansion. Contact them once a month or whatever it takes.
Brian Dunn - Chief Executive Officer; E-mail: brian.dunn@bestbuy.com
Shari Ballard - President of the Americas; E-mail: shari.ballard@bestbuy.com
Barry Judge - Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice-President; E-mail: barry.judge@bestbuy.com
Drew Panayiotou - Senior Vice-President of Marketing; E-mail: drew.panayiotou@bestbuy.com
Ok Friends, RPM needs our help
There's just about 1/4 of the season remaining and the people at Best Buy need to hear from us again. We have to let them know we want them to return to RPM and the famed 43 not only for next year, but also beyond 2012. Last year's late decision was nerve wracking; however, late sponsorship renewals affect and delay the planning and arrival of new retail marketing items, budgets, and team cohesiveness at all levels for the next season.
Best Buy and Petty are two iconic brands that equal fan loyalty, and while we have been loyal to both we would appreciate Best Buy's early renewal announcement for 2012 and beyond. In these less than positive economic hard times, even if they return and cut back one or two races, that's better than zero; however, adding more races to the sponsorship package benefits everyone.
This is the best year Best Buy has experienced since entering NASCAR with HAAS (#66). Gillett-Evernham (#19), and now with our famed RPM (#43) and when AJ wins it will be their first time as primary sponsor in Victory Lane. They had a little taste of victory already as sponsor associate with Marcos at Watkins Glen.
Please contact the following at Best Buy Executive Management, just like last year, showing them your support of their continued relationship with RPM, AJ, and our famed #43. The sooner they commit and announce, the more focused RPM can be with expansion. Contact them once a month or whatever it takes.
Brian Dunn - Chief Executive Officer; E-mail: brian.dunn@bestbuy.com
Shari Ballard - President of the Americas; E-mail: shari.ballard@bestbuy.com
Barry Judge - Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice-President; E-mail: barry.judge@bestbuy.com
Drew Panayiotou - Senior Vice-President of Marketing; E-mail: drew.panayiotou@bestbuy.com
Bristol II Post-Race Quotes
Marcos Ambrose, No. 9 Stanley Ford FusionFinished 10th
“We finished 10th and I am pretty proud of our efforts tonight. The car wasn’t perfect but we stayed on the lead lap and kept digging on the top groove. The tire was very challenging for the teams to set up for. It was pretty loose in and I am pleased with our results.”
***
AJ Allmendinger, No. 43 Best Buy Ford
Finished 12th
“Off of past results this was an awesome night. With like 200 to go we were running like sixth or seventh and we were just kind of going back and forth between being too loose and too tight and we got it too tight the rest of the night. Everybody just runs the top and especially when you are tight you can’t do anything. I feel like 12th place, I am pleased with it, not thrilled but pleased with it.”
Credit - Ford Racing
“We finished 10th and I am pretty proud of our efforts tonight. The car wasn’t perfect but we stayed on the lead lap and kept digging on the top groove. The tire was very challenging for the teams to set up for. It was pretty loose in and I am pleased with our results.”
***
AJ Allmendinger, No. 43 Best Buy Ford
Finished 12th
“Off of past results this was an awesome night. With like 200 to go we were running like sixth or seventh and we were just kind of going back and forth between being too loose and too tight and we got it too tight the rest of the night. Everybody just runs the top and especially when you are tight you can’t do anything. I feel like 12th place, I am pleased with it, not thrilled but pleased with it.”
Credit - Ford Racing
Friday, August 26, 2011
Bristol II Qualifying Quotes
Marcos Ambrose, No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion
Qualified 11th
“I tell you what the last few weeks have been great for our Stanley Dewalt team and everyone in the program. We have really turned our stuff around. Todd Parrott has had done a great job on the box and Mark my everyday engineer and everyone are working hard at it and thinking about it and doing our own thing. We aren’t copying other people and it is certainly working out.”
***
AJ Allmendinger, No. 43 Best Buy Ford
Qualified 18th
“You always want pole. It was a decent lap. You can break it down and figure out where you lost a hundredth of a second. It was decent but I am not sure where that will end up. I wish we would have been on the bottom side of those 72’s but we will see.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL YOUR CAR IS FOR TOMORROW NIGHT? “I feel like we know. This has always been my worse race track so I feel like we put in a lot of laps and the crew guys did a great job of making a lot of changes. I was happy with the car and I think we are decent in race trim. We aren’t the fastest car but we are at least in the ballgame. We will just try to be smart for 500 laps.”
Credit - Ford Racing
Qualified 11th
“I tell you what the last few weeks have been great for our Stanley Dewalt team and everyone in the program. We have really turned our stuff around. Todd Parrott has had done a great job on the box and Mark my everyday engineer and everyone are working hard at it and thinking about it and doing our own thing. We aren’t copying other people and it is certainly working out.”
***
AJ Allmendinger, No. 43 Best Buy Ford
Qualified 18th
“You always want pole. It was a decent lap. You can break it down and figure out where you lost a hundredth of a second. It was decent but I am not sure where that will end up. I wish we would have been on the bottom side of those 72’s but we will see.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL YOUR CAR IS FOR TOMORROW NIGHT? “I feel like we know. This has always been my worse race track so I feel like we put in a lot of laps and the crew guys did a great job of making a lot of changes. I was happy with the car and I think we are decent in race trim. We aren’t the fastest car but we are at least in the ballgame. We will just try to be smart for 500 laps.”
Credit - Ford Racing
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Bristol II Race Preview
AJ ALLMENDINGER
No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion
• Allmendinger has made eight starts at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway
• Allmendinger enters Bristol in 15th place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings
• Allmendinger’s best start (eighth) at the .533-mile oval came in the fall race in 2008
Allmendinger on Bristol Motor Speedway: “I love racing under the lights. Bristol is one of the coolest races of the year. The fans are just awesome and the atmosphere is crazy at night. A first win for our Best Buy Racing team coming in Bristol would be incredible. We need a win to keep our Chase hopes alive and I’m going to do my best to try and make that happen this weekend.
“Bristol is a tough track and it hasn’t been all that good to me the past few years. It’s not my favorite place to race because there are so many things that can happen that are completely out of our control. It’s like that every week, but it’s magnified at Bristol. If I can stay out of trouble in the pits and on the track, I know the 43 team will do its best to give me a car capable of winning.”
Crew Chief Greg Erwin’s Thoughts on Racing at Bristol: “Bristol is a typical short-track. Though it is banked, it’s still really hard to get the car to roll though the center of the corner well and still be able to drive up off the corner. We need to be able to get the car’s nose underneath somebody and not lose the back tires leaving the corner. We’ll spend at least two hours of our day Friday working on those issues.
“I’m excited we’re going to get to practice and race on the same tire this time. When we were at Bristol back in March, we qualified and practiced on one compound and we raced on a different tire compound, so all the teams were a little off setup wise, to say the least. We didn't really know how the car was going to drive in the spring race, but this race should be different having just one tire.
“By AJ’s own admission, Bristol isn’t one of his best tracks, but he has been in the shop this week watching film of past races to try and see how he can improve, so that’s a positive for the No. 43 Best Buy team. The night race is very exciting and Saturday turns into a long day for our guys since we are racing late into the night. It will be important to keep the crew guys focused and rested because pit stops will be key. You can make or break your night on pit road. It’s going to be a real test for the Best Buy pit crew to see if we can keep AJ out front with good pit stops.”
Chassis History: The No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports team has prepared chassis No. 710 for this weekend’s event at Bristol Motor Speedway. This Best Buy Ford has been run previously this season at Bristol in March and Dover and Michigan in June.
Notes: Allmendinger has eight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at Bristol Motor Speedway and has completed 3,740 of 4,007 laps at the .533-mile concrete oval. Allmendinger enters Bristol in 15th place in the Sprint Cup Series driver point standings.
Fun Fact: Bristol Motor Speedway is known for its unique driver introductions. Each driver will be introduced to the crowd with a song of his choice playing in the background. Allmendinger has chosen the song “Down with the Sickness” by Disturbed for his introduction.
Don’t miss your chance to meet “The King!” Richard Petty will be visiting the Ford display for a Q-and-A session on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Credit - Richard Petty Motorsports PR
No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion
• Allmendinger has made eight starts at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway
• Allmendinger enters Bristol in 15th place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings
• Allmendinger’s best start (eighth) at the .533-mile oval came in the fall race in 2008
Allmendinger on Bristol Motor Speedway: “I love racing under the lights. Bristol is one of the coolest races of the year. The fans are just awesome and the atmosphere is crazy at night. A first win for our Best Buy Racing team coming in Bristol would be incredible. We need a win to keep our Chase hopes alive and I’m going to do my best to try and make that happen this weekend.
“Bristol is a tough track and it hasn’t been all that good to me the past few years. It’s not my favorite place to race because there are so many things that can happen that are completely out of our control. It’s like that every week, but it’s magnified at Bristol. If I can stay out of trouble in the pits and on the track, I know the 43 team will do its best to give me a car capable of winning.”
Crew Chief Greg Erwin’s Thoughts on Racing at Bristol: “Bristol is a typical short-track. Though it is banked, it’s still really hard to get the car to roll though the center of the corner well and still be able to drive up off the corner. We need to be able to get the car’s nose underneath somebody and not lose the back tires leaving the corner. We’ll spend at least two hours of our day Friday working on those issues.
“I’m excited we’re going to get to practice and race on the same tire this time. When we were at Bristol back in March, we qualified and practiced on one compound and we raced on a different tire compound, so all the teams were a little off setup wise, to say the least. We didn't really know how the car was going to drive in the spring race, but this race should be different having just one tire.
“By AJ’s own admission, Bristol isn’t one of his best tracks, but he has been in the shop this week watching film of past races to try and see how he can improve, so that’s a positive for the No. 43 Best Buy team. The night race is very exciting and Saturday turns into a long day for our guys since we are racing late into the night. It will be important to keep the crew guys focused and rested because pit stops will be key. You can make or break your night on pit road. It’s going to be a real test for the Best Buy pit crew to see if we can keep AJ out front with good pit stops.”
Chassis History: The No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports team has prepared chassis No. 710 for this weekend’s event at Bristol Motor Speedway. This Best Buy Ford has been run previously this season at Bristol in March and Dover and Michigan in June.
Notes: Allmendinger has eight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at Bristol Motor Speedway and has completed 3,740 of 4,007 laps at the .533-mile concrete oval. Allmendinger enters Bristol in 15th place in the Sprint Cup Series driver point standings.
Fun Fact: Bristol Motor Speedway is known for its unique driver introductions. Each driver will be introduced to the crowd with a song of his choice playing in the background. Allmendinger has chosen the song “Down with the Sickness” by Disturbed for his introduction.
Don’t miss your chance to meet “The King!” Richard Petty will be visiting the Ford display for a Q-and-A session on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Credit - Richard Petty Motorsports PR
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Dinger Fan Story #7
Here is one of my many stories about my friend Greg. I call it.... A Father's Dedication
As most of you know, AJ's dad is a retired floor covering installer. I worked with Greg in the trade for many years. AJ was running go-carts at the time. We were asked to install carpet one evening in an office building in Santa Clara. The evening started out as usual - we pulled out the old glued down carpet and we were going to put the new carpet in over pad. We spread out the tack strip and started to nail it down. To this day Greg says when I walked back in to the office from getting something out of the truck that I startled him. Anyway instead of Greg hitting the nail in the strip, Greg hit his thumb with the hammer. I mean you could not have hit it any better if you tried. It just exploded his left thumb - it was pretty bad if you know what I mean. I won't go into detail for some of you with a weak stomach. Since I was running the job I told Greg I will make a call and get someone else to come help me and that he should go home and take care of his thumb. This is the part that I will never forget. He looked me straight in my eyes and said, "My kid needs go-cart tires and I need this money to buy them." So we wrapped a piece of pad around his thumb, then wrapped some duct tape around it to keep the pad on it and Greg worked that way the rest of the night. I was just amazed that he could keep laying carpet that evening with his thumb in such bad shape. It just goes to show how much love and dedication Greg has for his son AJ. I hope all you AJ fans out there enjoyed this story. It is one evening that I will never forget.
Ron V
As most of you know, AJ's dad is a retired floor covering installer. I worked with Greg in the trade for many years. AJ was running go-carts at the time. We were asked to install carpet one evening in an office building in Santa Clara. The evening started out as usual - we pulled out the old glued down carpet and we were going to put the new carpet in over pad. We spread out the tack strip and started to nail it down. To this day Greg says when I walked back in to the office from getting something out of the truck that I startled him. Anyway instead of Greg hitting the nail in the strip, Greg hit his thumb with the hammer. I mean you could not have hit it any better if you tried. It just exploded his left thumb - it was pretty bad if you know what I mean. I won't go into detail for some of you with a weak stomach. Since I was running the job I told Greg I will make a call and get someone else to come help me and that he should go home and take care of his thumb. This is the part that I will never forget. He looked me straight in my eyes and said, "My kid needs go-cart tires and I need this money to buy them." So we wrapped a piece of pad around his thumb, then wrapped some duct tape around it to keep the pad on it and Greg worked that way the rest of the night. I was just amazed that he could keep laying carpet that evening with his thumb in such bad shape. It just goes to show how much love and dedication Greg has for his son AJ. I hope all you AJ fans out there enjoyed this story. It is one evening that I will never forget.
Ron V
San Jose, Ca
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Ford Racing: Allmendinger & Erwin
AJ Allmendinger, driver of the No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion, comes off an 11th place finish last weekend in Michigan which moved him into the top-15 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup points standings. With just three races left before the Chase field is set, Allmendinger talked about what he needs to do down the stretch, how he will attack the Bristol short track and what things have been like with new crew chief Greg Erwin.
AJ ALLMENDINGER, driver No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion
HOW HAS THE TRANSITION GONE TO YOUR NEW CREW CHIEF GREG ERWIN? “I think it has been pretty good. We’ve kind of had two out of four weeks that were really good and the others were a little bit of a struggle, but I think you are going to have that when you are working together for the first time. Honestly, I think it has been really good and I enjoy working with Greg. He has the experience and he has race wins under his belt and has confidence in himself and what we need to do with the race cars. It is helping me and I feel like, take last week for instance, we struggled all weekend really. We weren’t very good all weekend and we weren’t very good in the race. He made a good call at the end for four tires and we end up with an eleventh place finish. That is a something we probably shouldn’t have gotten. It is things like that. There is a lot of room on things we need to improve on, but I feel like as the weekend goes on we feel like we are making progress and at least changing the race car and doing things that we are learning from. Because of that it has been enjoyable. I really enjoy working with him and I really do look forward to the rest of the season to try to keep going and keep learning with him and hopefully keep getting stronger.”
FROM A DRIVERS PERSPECTIVE, ARE YOU WILLING TO TAKE SOME CHANCES IN THESE FINAL THREE RACES TO TRY TO MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN AND GRAB A WIN FOR A WILD CARD CHANCE? “Not really. Obviously we are in position now where if we were to get a win I think we would be right in there or if not put ourselves in. At the same time though the way I look at it is that we just have to get better as a team. If we steal a win and get in the Chase and run 10 races and don’t run very well then there is really no point of being in the Chase, it is just a wasted spot. I look at it like we need to keep getting better every weekend and be a consistent top-10 race team, then a top-five and then have a chance at victories. Greg has the experience to know that if you put yourself in the position good things can happen. If there are 10 to go on a restart and you are inside the top three or four and there is a chance to get a win, then maybe we get more aggressive or take a chance on fuel mileage or strategy, but I don’t really look at that right now. I look at just trying to get better as a race team. We are 15th in points and even from the bad weekend we were able to make ground up on the people we were racing around. Our goal every weekend is to go out there and win, but I am also trying to take things step-by-step and get better as a race team and as a driver and be more consistent. I know when that happens, the wins will come. I don’t want to just be that guy that wins one race in his career. I want to be a multiple race winner and be a guy whose name is brought up every weekend when they talk about guys that can win. To do that we have to become more consistent and get our race cars a little better overall. That is the process I am going by.”
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO THIS WEEKEND AT BRISTOL IN ORDER TO RUN BETTER THAN YOU HAVE IN THE PAST AND MAYBE PUT YOURSELF IN POSITION TO TAKE A CHANCE? “I really do love theBristol night race. Honestly, I think it is the coolest race on the NASCAR calendar. You get everybody stacked in there with the crowd and it is a night race. It has that Saturday night short track feel except there are 150,000 people in the grandstands watching. To me it is a fun race to go to but our stats aren’t very good there in the past. It has been a place that over the last couple years I have lost some confidence in figuring out how to get around that place. I have watched a lot of in-car camera and talked to Greg a lot about what we need. I have studied how these guys that do well there get around there well and how they keep themselves in the ballgame all race. There is a lot of luck and patience that goes into it. I think I look at is as we are just trying to go out there and run all 500 laps. That is my goal. I want to go out there and be smart. Hopefully we can unload off the truck and be good from the start and run all 500 laps. I feel like if you do that, if you run all 500 laps, you can finish top-15 if not better. That is the mindset I am going with. I was just joking about it today. I think one time out of seven or eight times that I have raced there I have actually finished all the laps. So that is my first goal. As that goes on we will see how the rest of it goes, but that is definitely our first goal, to finish all the laps.”
DO YOU ANTICIPATE WHAT WAS ALREADY A PRETTY INTENSE RACE BEING EVEN MORESO THIS YEAR WITH ALL THE GUYS FIGHTING FOR CHASE CONTENTION? “I think so. I thinkBristol is always a place where you see a lot of paybacks from drivers that are mad at each other. You will see a lot of desperation. The way this new format is there, and the way the points have worked out this year with everyone being so tight, there are still a legitimatesix to eight guys that can make that wild card. There are also a lot of legitimate fast guys that can win a race in the next three.Bristol is a place that is a tight course and people are going to really start taking chances. Desperation is probably the best word. I think that will start to set in and people will be doing everything they can. That is the mindset that I have to try to get away from and take things as they come. I think that is the biggest thing that has happened to me over the years atBristol. I think I have forced the issue when our car wasn’t good. With people being desperate around us, I am going to have the mindset to just be patient and run our laps and hopefully that will put us in a good position.”
DID YOU PICK YOUR INTRO SONG YET FOR SATURDAY NIGHT? “Yeah, I went with some old school. I picked Disturbed’s ‘Down with the Sickness’.”
***
Greg Erwin, crew chief for the No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion of AJ Allmendinger, made the move from Roush Fenway Racing to Richard Petty Motorsports prior to the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis. Now with four races under his belt calling shots for the iconic car, Erwin took time with Ford Racing to talk about the transition, what he expects this weekend in Bristol and how much of a gambling man he and the Dinger might be in the final three races before the Chase.
GREG ERWIN, Crew Chief, No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion
WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES FOR YOU HEADING INTO BRISTOL AND WHAT ARE YOU FOCUSING ON FOR THE NIGHT RACE THIS WEEKEND? “The biggest challenge for me as crew chief with AJ is going to a place that he is not very comfortable at and he doesn’t have a real good feel for. Coming off about eight trips there with Biffle with fairly similar set-ups every time and some very good results, not having a real good idea what AJ is looking for in a feel. We are not going to force one driver’s set-up on AJ. We are going to let him kind of find his way around that race track and try to give him a feel that he is looking for because that place is a lot about the driver feel and trying to keep the car turning. What I want to make sure of is that I don’t put him in a box and make him run a set-up that is not to his liking necessarily or not the feel he is looking for. We are going to do some experimentation early Friday, us and the No. 9 guys are going to work on a couple things together as a company. Hopefully, we will look for a direction going into that final practice.”
MARCOS AMBROSE HAS DONE PRETTY WELL AT BRISTOL. HOW MUCH WILL YOU LEAN ON THAT TEAM AND HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK AJ MIGHT LEAN ON MARCOS TO GET SOME POINTERS? “Pointers are pretty important. I have some in car video of a few different drivers and I have some copies of in car videos, one of Greg’s (Biffle) and a couple others that I consider top-10 drivers there. I made some copies of those yesterday for AJ to take home and take a look at. Marcos has done very well there and he has been in good equipment there over the years. To be completely honest, I haven’t really gotten to look into any set-up information that he may have, but I know what he ran in the spring. Phil Surgeon and I are sitting here right now actually and are looking at the last two or three events worth of set-ups. I think the spring event is a little bit of an outlier in that the tire change they threw us toward the end of practice really threw everybody off. I think the results of the spring race were not necessarily indicative of what you will see this time around.”
TIRES HAVE BEEN A HOT BUTTON ISSUE. GUYS HAVE SAID THAT TIRE PACKAGES HAVE THROWN TEAMS FOR A LOOP THIS YEAR. AS A CREW CHIEF, WHAT HAVE YOU NOTICED WITH THE TIRE PACKAGES THIS YEAR AND TO YOU AGREE WITH THOSE ASSESMENTS? “I agree 100-percent that it is a crap shoot. It feels like a crap shoot every week and more so this year than historically. We know that when we go to some of these race tracks for the second time in the season that they have weathered and aged and we know a lot of times it might be a little warmer or a little colder, depending on where we are. It almost feels like every time we show up to the race track if we brought exactly the same stuff we had in the race car three months of four months before that is feels like we are starting over every week.”
WHAT HAVE BEEN THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES OR SUPRISES IN YOUR TRANSITION TO RPM AND THE 43 TEAM? “The biggest challenge is the names of all the guys on the 43 crew. I am over that now. It has been three or four weeks but for the first couple of weeks trying to remember all the guys in the shop and pit crew was a challenge. I have tried to adapt myself into a system that was already working and not wanting to come in and completely just turn everybody’s world upside down and cause a big distraction and set back at this point in the season. AJ is in line for a career best points finish and I think he has opened a lot of eyes this year. Certainly Mike Shiplett had gotten the thing as far as it was and that is a shout-out to him. One of the positives with AJ is that he has no preconceived notions of what things should do or how his car should necessarily drive. His effort in paying attention to what we are doing and really trying to give me as much feedback as he can give me, constructive feedback, has been tremendous. It has been every bit of all I could ask for. Probably the weakness with AJ right now is, again, he has no preconceived notions of what he should be feeling. Sometimes he struggles a little bit trying to tell me if we need to tighten the car up to go faster or if we need to free the car up to go faster. From a balance standpoint it kind of leaves it up to me to sort of take a look at the lap times and the way the car is driving and adjust from there. It is obvious that his strength is also his weakness right now. More experience, more time behind the wheel in competitive cars and not so much back there running 25th and 30th, but time around those guys that can run near the top-10 every week is going to be critical to his development. He is working really hard on the finer things in life we don’t all see from the television every week. Things like making time getting on pit road, getting the car in the box, getting the car stopped where the pit crew can get their job done in a competitive amount of time and then leaving the box a lot harder. All of that is going to show up in the way his car cycles out after green flag pit stops. He was a little weak at that but he is working really hard on that right now.”
WITH A COUPLE RACES LEFT BEFORE THE CHASE, ARE YOU WILLING TO TAKE CHANCES TO TRY TO STEAL A WIN? DOES YOUR MINDSET CHANGE AT ALL THESE LAST THREE RACES? “AJ has to get a win to get into the Chase and I don’t necessarily know that it is going to take two. It depends on how it works with Brad Keselowski and the 2 car. To finish 15th in the points or 13th in the points or 14th in the points is irrelevant. If you can get a ‘W’ right now we know that is the only realistic way he has a shot at getting in. We would go for the win and roll the dice. The problem we have there would be if we were going to be a little short as far as stretching fuel mileage or anything like that. That would be difficult for us. If you are asking me if we are going to run these last three races before the Chase to win, then I am going to tell you absolutely."
Credit - Ford Racing
AJ ALLMENDINGER, driver No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion
HOW HAS THE TRANSITION GONE TO YOUR NEW CREW CHIEF GREG ERWIN? “I think it has been pretty good. We’ve kind of had two out of four weeks that were really good and the others were a little bit of a struggle, but I think you are going to have that when you are working together for the first time. Honestly, I think it has been really good and I enjoy working with Greg. He has the experience and he has race wins under his belt and has confidence in himself and what we need to do with the race cars. It is helping me and I feel like, take last week for instance, we struggled all weekend really. We weren’t very good all weekend and we weren’t very good in the race. He made a good call at the end for four tires and we end up with an eleventh place finish. That is a something we probably shouldn’t have gotten. It is things like that. There is a lot of room on things we need to improve on, but I feel like as the weekend goes on we feel like we are making progress and at least changing the race car and doing things that we are learning from. Because of that it has been enjoyable. I really enjoy working with him and I really do look forward to the rest of the season to try to keep going and keep learning with him and hopefully keep getting stronger.”
FROM A DRIVERS PERSPECTIVE, ARE YOU WILLING TO TAKE SOME CHANCES IN THESE FINAL THREE RACES TO TRY TO MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN AND GRAB A WIN FOR A WILD CARD CHANCE? “Not really. Obviously we are in position now where if we were to get a win I think we would be right in there or if not put ourselves in. At the same time though the way I look at it is that we just have to get better as a team. If we steal a win and get in the Chase and run 10 races and don’t run very well then there is really no point of being in the Chase, it is just a wasted spot. I look at it like we need to keep getting better every weekend and be a consistent top-10 race team, then a top-five and then have a chance at victories. Greg has the experience to know that if you put yourself in the position good things can happen. If there are 10 to go on a restart and you are inside the top three or four and there is a chance to get a win, then maybe we get more aggressive or take a chance on fuel mileage or strategy, but I don’t really look at that right now. I look at just trying to get better as a race team. We are 15th in points and even from the bad weekend we were able to make ground up on the people we were racing around. Our goal every weekend is to go out there and win, but I am also trying to take things step-by-step and get better as a race team and as a driver and be more consistent. I know when that happens, the wins will come. I don’t want to just be that guy that wins one race in his career. I want to be a multiple race winner and be a guy whose name is brought up every weekend when they talk about guys that can win. To do that we have to become more consistent and get our race cars a little better overall. That is the process I am going by.”
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO THIS WEEKEND AT BRISTOL IN ORDER TO RUN BETTER THAN YOU HAVE IN THE PAST AND MAYBE PUT YOURSELF IN POSITION TO TAKE A CHANCE? “I really do love theBristol night race. Honestly, I think it is the coolest race on the NASCAR calendar. You get everybody stacked in there with the crowd and it is a night race. It has that Saturday night short track feel except there are 150,000 people in the grandstands watching. To me it is a fun race to go to but our stats aren’t very good there in the past. It has been a place that over the last couple years I have lost some confidence in figuring out how to get around that place. I have watched a lot of in-car camera and talked to Greg a lot about what we need. I have studied how these guys that do well there get around there well and how they keep themselves in the ballgame all race. There is a lot of luck and patience that goes into it. I think I look at is as we are just trying to go out there and run all 500 laps. That is my goal. I want to go out there and be smart. Hopefully we can unload off the truck and be good from the start and run all 500 laps. I feel like if you do that, if you run all 500 laps, you can finish top-15 if not better. That is the mindset I am going with. I was just joking about it today. I think one time out of seven or eight times that I have raced there I have actually finished all the laps. So that is my first goal. As that goes on we will see how the rest of it goes, but that is definitely our first goal, to finish all the laps.”
DO YOU ANTICIPATE WHAT WAS ALREADY A PRETTY INTENSE RACE BEING EVEN MORESO THIS YEAR WITH ALL THE GUYS FIGHTING FOR CHASE CONTENTION? “I think so. I thinkBristol is always a place where you see a lot of paybacks from drivers that are mad at each other. You will see a lot of desperation. The way this new format is there, and the way the points have worked out this year with everyone being so tight, there are still a legitimatesix to eight guys that can make that wild card. There are also a lot of legitimate fast guys that can win a race in the next three.Bristol is a place that is a tight course and people are going to really start taking chances. Desperation is probably the best word. I think that will start to set in and people will be doing everything they can. That is the mindset that I have to try to get away from and take things as they come. I think that is the biggest thing that has happened to me over the years atBristol. I think I have forced the issue when our car wasn’t good. With people being desperate around us, I am going to have the mindset to just be patient and run our laps and hopefully that will put us in a good position.”
DID YOU PICK YOUR INTRO SONG YET FOR SATURDAY NIGHT? “Yeah, I went with some old school. I picked Disturbed’s ‘Down with the Sickness’.”
***
Greg Erwin, crew chief for the No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion of AJ Allmendinger, made the move from Roush Fenway Racing to Richard Petty Motorsports prior to the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis. Now with four races under his belt calling shots for the iconic car, Erwin took time with Ford Racing to talk about the transition, what he expects this weekend in Bristol and how much of a gambling man he and the Dinger might be in the final three races before the Chase.
GREG ERWIN, Crew Chief, No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion
WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES FOR YOU HEADING INTO BRISTOL AND WHAT ARE YOU FOCUSING ON FOR THE NIGHT RACE THIS WEEKEND? “The biggest challenge for me as crew chief with AJ is going to a place that he is not very comfortable at and he doesn’t have a real good feel for. Coming off about eight trips there with Biffle with fairly similar set-ups every time and some very good results, not having a real good idea what AJ is looking for in a feel. We are not going to force one driver’s set-up on AJ. We are going to let him kind of find his way around that race track and try to give him a feel that he is looking for because that place is a lot about the driver feel and trying to keep the car turning. What I want to make sure of is that I don’t put him in a box and make him run a set-up that is not to his liking necessarily or not the feel he is looking for. We are going to do some experimentation early Friday, us and the No. 9 guys are going to work on a couple things together as a company. Hopefully, we will look for a direction going into that final practice.”
MARCOS AMBROSE HAS DONE PRETTY WELL AT BRISTOL. HOW MUCH WILL YOU LEAN ON THAT TEAM AND HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK AJ MIGHT LEAN ON MARCOS TO GET SOME POINTERS? “Pointers are pretty important. I have some in car video of a few different drivers and I have some copies of in car videos, one of Greg’s (Biffle) and a couple others that I consider top-10 drivers there. I made some copies of those yesterday for AJ to take home and take a look at. Marcos has done very well there and he has been in good equipment there over the years. To be completely honest, I haven’t really gotten to look into any set-up information that he may have, but I know what he ran in the spring. Phil Surgeon and I are sitting here right now actually and are looking at the last two or three events worth of set-ups. I think the spring event is a little bit of an outlier in that the tire change they threw us toward the end of practice really threw everybody off. I think the results of the spring race were not necessarily indicative of what you will see this time around.”
TIRES HAVE BEEN A HOT BUTTON ISSUE. GUYS HAVE SAID THAT TIRE PACKAGES HAVE THROWN TEAMS FOR A LOOP THIS YEAR. AS A CREW CHIEF, WHAT HAVE YOU NOTICED WITH THE TIRE PACKAGES THIS YEAR AND TO YOU AGREE WITH THOSE ASSESMENTS? “I agree 100-percent that it is a crap shoot. It feels like a crap shoot every week and more so this year than historically. We know that when we go to some of these race tracks for the second time in the season that they have weathered and aged and we know a lot of times it might be a little warmer or a little colder, depending on where we are. It almost feels like every time we show up to the race track if we brought exactly the same stuff we had in the race car three months of four months before that is feels like we are starting over every week.”
WHAT HAVE BEEN THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES OR SUPRISES IN YOUR TRANSITION TO RPM AND THE 43 TEAM? “The biggest challenge is the names of all the guys on the 43 crew. I am over that now. It has been three or four weeks but for the first couple of weeks trying to remember all the guys in the shop and pit crew was a challenge. I have tried to adapt myself into a system that was already working and not wanting to come in and completely just turn everybody’s world upside down and cause a big distraction and set back at this point in the season. AJ is in line for a career best points finish and I think he has opened a lot of eyes this year. Certainly Mike Shiplett had gotten the thing as far as it was and that is a shout-out to him. One of the positives with AJ is that he has no preconceived notions of what things should do or how his car should necessarily drive. His effort in paying attention to what we are doing and really trying to give me as much feedback as he can give me, constructive feedback, has been tremendous. It has been every bit of all I could ask for. Probably the weakness with AJ right now is, again, he has no preconceived notions of what he should be feeling. Sometimes he struggles a little bit trying to tell me if we need to tighten the car up to go faster or if we need to free the car up to go faster. From a balance standpoint it kind of leaves it up to me to sort of take a look at the lap times and the way the car is driving and adjust from there. It is obvious that his strength is also his weakness right now. More experience, more time behind the wheel in competitive cars and not so much back there running 25th and 30th, but time around those guys that can run near the top-10 every week is going to be critical to his development. He is working really hard on the finer things in life we don’t all see from the television every week. Things like making time getting on pit road, getting the car in the box, getting the car stopped where the pit crew can get their job done in a competitive amount of time and then leaving the box a lot harder. All of that is going to show up in the way his car cycles out after green flag pit stops. He was a little weak at that but he is working really hard on that right now.”
WITH A COUPLE RACES LEFT BEFORE THE CHASE, ARE YOU WILLING TO TAKE CHANCES TO TRY TO STEAL A WIN? DOES YOUR MINDSET CHANGE AT ALL THESE LAST THREE RACES? “AJ has to get a win to get into the Chase and I don’t necessarily know that it is going to take two. It depends on how it works with Brad Keselowski and the 2 car. To finish 15th in the points or 13th in the points or 14th in the points is irrelevant. If you can get a ‘W’ right now we know that is the only realistic way he has a shot at getting in. We would go for the win and roll the dice. The problem we have there would be if we were going to be a little short as far as stretching fuel mileage or anything like that. That would be difficult for us. If you are asking me if we are going to run these last three races before the Chase to win, then I am going to tell you absolutely."
Credit - Ford Racing
Monday, August 22, 2011
Michigan II Race Recap
AJ ALLMENDINGER
No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion
■AJ Allmendinger started from the 29th spot at Michigan International Speedway
■Allmendinger wheeled his way to an 11th-place finishing position at the two-mile oval
■Unofficially, Allmendinger sits in 15th place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings
Race Summary: AJ Allmendinger lined up for the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event at Michigan International Speedway in the 29th position and drove his way inside the top 25 by the time the first yellow flag of the day flew on Lap 30. Because his driver had been complaining of a tight handling car, Crew Chief Greg Erwin made plans for an air pressure adjustment on the first stop as well as four fresh tires and fuel.
Allmendinger lined up for the Lap 35 restart in the 22nd position. He communicated to Erwin throughout much of the race that the car felt like it didn’t have enough front or rear grip. Erwin made a myriad of changes during that time, but Allmendinger fought the handling of the car for much of the event.
An ill-timed caution flag at Lap 169 just after the Best Buy Racing crew had made a pit stop left them a lap down. The team opted for the wave around on the restart and was able to get solidly back on the lead lap when the caution flag flew once again with three laps remaining in the race. Erwin called his driver into the pits for four fresh tires, and when the green flag flew for the final time, Allmendinger lined up in 21st place, behind those cars that either opted to stay out on the track or pit for only two fresh tires.
Allmendinger showed his stuff in the remaining three laps, wheeling his Best Buy Ford Fusion through traffic like a man on a mission. Passing cars right and left, Allmendinger had picked up 10 spots by the time the checkered flag flew. He held down 11th place at the conclusion of the event.
Allmendinger picked up one position and now holds down the 15th spot in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings heading into next weekend’s event at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.
Credit - Richard Petty Motorsports PR
No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion
■AJ Allmendinger started from the 29th spot at Michigan International Speedway
■Allmendinger wheeled his way to an 11th-place finishing position at the two-mile oval
■Unofficially, Allmendinger sits in 15th place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings
Race Summary: AJ Allmendinger lined up for the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event at Michigan International Speedway in the 29th position and drove his way inside the top 25 by the time the first yellow flag of the day flew on Lap 30. Because his driver had been complaining of a tight handling car, Crew Chief Greg Erwin made plans for an air pressure adjustment on the first stop as well as four fresh tires and fuel.
Allmendinger lined up for the Lap 35 restart in the 22nd position. He communicated to Erwin throughout much of the race that the car felt like it didn’t have enough front or rear grip. Erwin made a myriad of changes during that time, but Allmendinger fought the handling of the car for much of the event.
An ill-timed caution flag at Lap 169 just after the Best Buy Racing crew had made a pit stop left them a lap down. The team opted for the wave around on the restart and was able to get solidly back on the lead lap when the caution flag flew once again with three laps remaining in the race. Erwin called his driver into the pits for four fresh tires, and when the green flag flew for the final time, Allmendinger lined up in 21st place, behind those cars that either opted to stay out on the track or pit for only two fresh tires.
Allmendinger showed his stuff in the remaining three laps, wheeling his Best Buy Ford Fusion through traffic like a man on a mission. Passing cars right and left, Allmendinger had picked up 10 spots by the time the checkered flag flew. He held down 11th place at the conclusion of the event.
Allmendinger picked up one position and now holds down the 15th spot in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings heading into next weekend’s event at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.
Credit - Richard Petty Motorsports PR
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