ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY RACE RECAP
Race Summary: Sporting a new paint scheme this week, AJ Allmendinger took the green flag for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event at Atlanta Motor Speedway and let his Insignia/Best Buy Racing team know early on that his Ford Fusion was somewhat tight in the center of the corners and free off. Crew chief Mike Shiplett called for minor changes to the handling of the car during the first pit stop. Those adjustments obviously helped, and Allmendinger broke into the top 15 near the 70-lap mark and never looked back. As the track temperatures changed, so did the car, and Allmendinger, like many of his competitors, struggled with a bit of a loose handling machine just past Lap 100. That didn’t stop the young driver from climbing into the top 10 though, and Shiplett only had to make small chassis adjustments to keep his driver happy for the remainder of the race. When the checkered flag waved several laps past the scheduled distance, Allmendinger held down sixth place. The top-10 finish was the ninth of Allmendinger’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career and his best of the 2010 season. Allmendinger moved into 23rd place in the point standings after his sixth-place result.
Allmendinger on the Atlanta Event: “I am not very good at qualifying here, but I love racing here. We got a solid baseline to start the race with today and I think that really helped us. That was a big difference. It was a good run out there. The Insignia/Best Buy Ford was good all day. I am really proud because we were a top-10 car all day and we kept fine-tuning it and got it right. I am really proud of these Richard Petty Motorsports guys. I feel like we could have probably had a fourth or fifth out of it, but I am still really proud of the team. We are learning. There are still some things we have to get better at but all in all, for the pit crew and myself, it was a really good day. Hopefully this is something we can build on the rest of the way.”
The following is the finish position of the other Richard Petty Motorsports drivers:
Kasey Kahne, driver of the No. 9 Budweiser Ford 4th
Paul Menard, driver of the No. 98 Certain Teed/Menards Ford 5th
Elliott Sadler, driver of the No. 19 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford 19th
Next Race
Date: March 21, 2010
Race: Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway
Laps: 500 Laps/266.5 Miles
TV Information: 1 p.m. ET on FOX
Radio Information: 1 p.m. ET on PRN and Sirius/XM
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