PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY RACE REPORT
Race Summary: AJ Allmendinger scored his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pole on Friday and led the field to the green flag for Saturday’s evening’s race at Phoenix International Raceway. Allmendinger held on to the lead despite experiencing a tight handling condition until the first of nine caution flags was thrown. Crew chief Mike Shiplett called for four tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment before sending Allmendinger back to the track for the Lap 23 restart. Though he let the team know that his Ford Fusion was too tight all the way through the corner, Allmendinger ran in the top-10 for much of the first half of the event. Allmendinger asked for lots of help with the handling of the car during a Lap 131 pit stop and returned to the track for the Lap 149 green flag in the 21st spot. The adjustments made to the Valvoline Ford helped a bit, but the changing track conditions made things challenging for the team.
Allmendinger remained on the lead lap throughout the event and worked his way back into the top 15 with about 100 laps to go. After working his way through the field, the No. 43 machine stood poised for a top-10 finish with eight laps remaining. A caution flag with only three laps to go proved interesting as the lead teams had to decide whether to pit for four tires, two tires or none at all. Shiplett made the call to pit for two and Allmendinger lined up fifth for the green-white-checkered flag finish. Unfortunately, Allmendinger was unable to hold off those cars with four fresh tires and then got sent up the track after contact with another car, losing quite a few positions in the process. When all was said and done, Allmendinger took the checkered flag in Saturday evening’s event in the 15th position. Allmendinger now stands in 23rd position in the point standings, 173 markers outside the top 12.
Allmendinger on the Phoenix Event: “It was a tough day. We have to keep working on our race cars. It was pretty cool to be on the pole and get out there and lead some laps, but it is a tough race track with the way the conditions changed out there. We fell behind a little bit, but the Richard Petty Motorsports guys did a good job. At the end of the race we were the best we had been, but it is NASCAR, so eventually you know you are going to get a green-white-checkered finish. We were damned if we do and damned if we don’t on tires. We take four and we are behind everybody, but if we take two we’re in front of everyone that took four. You aren’t going to hold Jimmie Johnson back on a restart with two tires. He split me and that put us in the middle, and then we got down in the corner where Marcos Ambrose hit me and sent me for a ride. We were lucky our Valvoline Ford Fusion didn’t get into a wreck.”
The following is the finish position of the other Richard Petty Motorsports drivers:
Kasey Kahne, driver of the No. 9 Budweiser Ford 39th
Paul Menard, driver of the No. 98 Moen/Menards Ford 29th
Elliott Sadler, driver of the No. 19 Stanley Ford 31st
Next Race
Date: April 18, 2010
Race: Samsung Mobil 500
Laps: 334 Laps/500.5 Miles
TV Information: 3 p.m. ET on FOX
Radio Information: 3 p.m. ET on PRN and Sirius/XM Satellite Radio