INFINEON RACEWAY RACE REPORT
Race Summary: California native AJ Allmendinger lined his No. 43 Insignia HDTV/Best Buy Ford Fusion up in the 15th position for the start of Sunday’s race at Infineon Raceway, in Sonoma California. Allmendinger communicated to his crew chief Mike Shiplett over the initial laps of the event that his Ford machine needed more grip. Crew chief Mike Shiplett came up with a plan for adjustments just as the first caution of the day came at Lap 10 for an incident that involved the No. 43 RPM Ford.
During the caution, Allmendinger brought his Ford down pit road for repairs to both front fenders and adjustments to help with the handling. The Insignia HDTV/Best Buy crew worked quickly and were able to send their driver back out on the lead lap.
The field went back to green at Lap 13 with Allmendinger in the 40th position. The driver continued to give his crew feedback on the car so they could make necessary adjustments on a Lap 37 green flag pit stop. By Lap 50, the No. 43 was back racing among the top-20 cars.
Allmendinger was able to avoid contact in the multi-car accident that came just after a restart at Lap 67. The team took advantage of the red flag period to discuss strategy for the remainder of the race and what changes Shiplett would need to fight the rear grip issue Allmendinger was reporting.
The field went back to green flag racing at Lap 69 and by Lap 75 the No. 43 Ford was up to the 12th position. Being able to make it to the end of the race on fuel came into question, so Shiplett called for a stop during one of the last caution periods of the day at Lap 85. Unfortunately, the team was hit with a pit road penalty as NASCAR reported the No. 43 Ford was too fast exiting pit road.
Driver and crew didn’t let the penalty get to them and got right back to work as the race went green again at Lap 87. Over the last 23 laps, Allmendinger fought from as far back as 33rd to end the event in the 13th position.
Allmendinger on the Sonoma Event: “We’ve been fighting forward bite all weekend with the Insignia HDTV/Best Buy Ford. We were struggling with that. There were times we got it pretty good and then there were other times we struggled a little bit, but, overall, I felt like we made improvements from the start of the weekend until the end. I’m proud of this No. 43 team. I felt like we could have got a top-10 finish if we could get a little track position but we got another top-15 finish so we’ll take that and keep getting better.”