NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY RACE RECAP
Race Summary: California native AJ Allmendinger lined his No. 43 Berlin City Auto Group Ford Fusion up in the 28th position for the start of Sunday’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire, and moved into the top 25 within the first five laps of the event. Allmendinger held down 22nd place at Lap nine and let his team know that his Ford was handling a little tight in the early stages. Allmendinger continued to maneuver through slower traffic and when the first yellow flag of the day flew on Lap 35 of the 301-lap event, the No. 43 Ford held down 17th place. Crew Chief Mike Shiplett called for a four-tire change during the ensuing pit stop and made no adjustments to the handling of the car. Allmendinger continued his march to the front of the field following the stop and at the Lap-75 mark, had worked his way into the top 10. At the midway point of the event, Allmendinger held down seventh place and though he began to lose front grip as the race wore on, he was able to remain inside the top 10. A routine stop under yellow on Lap 240 enabled the No. 43 team to bolt on four fresh tires and fill the tank with fuel. Allmendinger lined up for the Lap 246 green flag in sixth place. Allmendinger ran as high as fourth place in the closing laps of the event, but fell slightly after taking two right side tires during a late caution flag and lining up sixth for the restart. When the checkered flag flew, Allmendinger?s No. 43 Ford held down 10th place.
Allmendinger on the Loudon event: “If you would have told me at the beginning of the day we were gonna finish 10th, I would have said, “Perfect.?When you kind of run top five or top six all day and you finish 10th, it doesn’t feel quite as good. I’m just proud of everybody on this No. 43 race team. Thank you to Ford, and we had Berlin City Auto Groups on the car today – the car looked good – Insignia, Best Buy and Valvoline, PVA – we’ve got them on the car next week – so everybody that supports this race team, thank you. It was another solid day, another top 10. We’ll take it. It’s another good point’s day. I think that probably got us closer to the chase because a couple guys ahead of us fell out, so we will just keep working on it and get-ting this race team even better.”
The following is the finish position of the other Richard Petty Motorsports drivers:
Kasey Kahne, driver of the No. 9 Budweiser Ford 36th
Paul Menard, driver of the No. 98 Energizer/Menards Ford 28th
Elliott Sadler, driver of the No. 19 Stanley Ford 19th
Next Race
Date: July 3, 2010
Race: Coke Zero 400
Track: Daytona International Speedway
Laps: 160Laps/400 Miles
TV Information: 7:30 p.m. ET on TNT
Radio Information: 7:30 p.m. ET on MRN and Sirius Radio Satellite Radio