AJ ALLMENDINGER, JTG DAUGHERTY RACING, AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY PREVIEW

AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 CHARTER CHEVROLET SS
JTG DAUGHERTY RACING AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY QUOTEBOOK

Time:  3 PM ET
TV /Radio:  FOX / MRN / SIRIUSXM

TEAM QUOTES:

California love: “California, it’s so nice there,” AJ Allmendinger said. “For the most part, the weather there is really nice. It is beautiful scenery whether you’re from Northern California (San Jose) like I am or if you go down to Southern California where we are going to race. It’s just a beautiful state.”

“California is a little different,” Allmendinger continued. “The state is almost like it is two different states whether you are from Northern or Southern California. I definitely love where I grew up and where I was raised. I spent 21 years there and still love going back home especially when it’s time for Sonoma (Raceway) because that’s closer to my home. It is, it’s different because you get somebody that says, ‘Oh yeah, I’m from California’ and then they say ‘Southern California’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, yeah that’s a different state, I’m not from there.’ We all have pride in where we are from. I’m looking forward to racing in my home state on Sunday with Charter on board.”

Racing all over the state: “With my mom and dad it was always a family thing whether we were going to races or we were go-kart racing,” Allmendinger said. “Growing up through the karting ranks when I was younger, I did a lot of races in California at so many tracks within a three hour radius. It was fun each weekend. There were times where we went to different tracks during the weekend where there was a race on a Saturday and we would go to a different track to race on Sunday. I just loved being able to share that with my parents. At the time, you’re always thinking I want to be big time racing. Now, I look back at it and the time I got to share with my mom and dad was something very special.”

Focused on progress: “I think we bit off a lot over the winter,” JTG Daugherty Racing co-owner Tad Geschickter said. “There are a lot of different processes working through the Richard Childress Racing engineering system. We beat ourselves the first two weeks, but it was all process stuff that we can fix that is in our control. We took care of it at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and had a top-20 at a mile-and-a-half, which showed progress as we went into Bristol Motor Speedway this past weekend. As long as we continue to show progress, I think we will get to where we want to be and be ultra-competitive this season.”

Versatility:  “Since the season kicked off, we have been at a different type of track every week,” Geschickter said. “That is why this is the toughest sport in the world. You are presented a different challenge every week. Having teammates to test with and share notes will certainly help our learning curve that will translate into speed.”

Tough sport: “It’s tough to run in the top-20,” Allmendinger said. “I’m not the most patient person and I’m trying to preach that to myself and to the race team as we continue building. At Phoenix we had a fast race car and had a clutch problem and fell off the jack and that cost us a top-10 or top-15. We’re not going to get there overnight, but I like the direction we are going in. You can’t just go to first right away. The last couple of years the team has been 30th in points and Tad and his wife Jodi (Geschickter) and Brad (Daugherty) took a huge step in trying to make the team better by having the RCR alliance and that’s already paying huge dividends for us. Just in the knowledge we are gaining, especially with the new rules package with the ride heights and trying to figure out which direction these cars are going. The way I look at it, we can be a top-20 car every weekend and minimize our mistakes. That’s how we keep building. We had a problem at Daytona (International Speedway) and Phoenix (International Raceway) and fixed those problems at Vegas (Las Vegas Motor Speedway). We didn’t have the finish we wanted at Bristol Motor Speedway after some bad luck, but we did finish inside the top-25. Now, we turn our focus to Auto Club Speedway.”

FAST FACTS:

Career Starts: 195
Top-fives:     5
Top-10s:      30
Pole Awards: 2
First Start:  3/25/2007  Bristol
First Pole:   4/10/2010  Phoenix
Last Pole:    4/22/2012  Kansas
Best Start:  1 4/10/2010 Phoenix
Best Finish: 2 4/1/2012  Martinsville
Driver DOB:  12/16/1981
Hometown:   San Jose, Calif.
Crew Chief:   Brian Burns

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