AJ Allmendinger
No. 47 Kroger/Kingsford Chevrolet SS
Indianapolis Motor Speedway Preview
Event: Crown Royal Presents the Combat Wounded Coalition 400 at the Brickyard
Date/Time: Sunday, July 24th 3 PM ET
TV/Radio: NBCSN / SIRIUSXM / IMS Radio Network
Quotes:
Fun place: “That place is so much fun at times, but just the prestige of it is what makes you walk into that racetrack every time,” Allmendinger said. “I don’t care what you’re racing. I’ve been fortunate enough to race the Indy 500, I’ve raced the Brickyard 400 and did a Sports Car race there. It really doesn’t matter what you’re in. When you walk into that place, a different feeling comes over you.”
The challenges: “In a Cup car it’s challenging at Indianapolis Motor Speedway,” Allmendinger said. “You really can’t be happy in all four corners, at least I haven’t been. Maybe some of those guys that have won are – – like Kyle Busch last year. I have to admit it’s just a fun racetrack, but it’s also challenging. It’s all about prestige.”
Turns: “To me, when they measure out the racetrack, they all measure out the same, but Turns 1 and 2 for whatever reason, are definitely slicker than Turns 3 and 4,” Allmendinger said. “They always have been. It was the same way in the Indy car. Turn 3 has grip and you feel it. You feel the car turn, you can get over on the right rear, you feel the grip in it. Turn 1, you turn in and it’s loose turning in, its tight-slick coming off. You get into Turn 2 and the car’s moving around a lot. It’s interesting, I’ve never understood it. Indy car was the same deal. Turn 1 in qualifying there, you just hold your breath every time you went down there. It’s funny the way the racetrack always feels, but it’s true, Turns 3 and 4 just feel so much easier than Turns 1 and 2.”
Recalling first time around Indy: “Unfortunately, it was 2007 when I was trying to make the race with Red Bull,” Allmendinger said. “It’s just crazy when you stand on the straightaway and just look down it, and you just see the wall make a 90 degree turn. You don’t even realize there’s a turn there. You don’t think there is any way possible that you can go down the straightway over 200 mph, especially in a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car and try to make that tight corner and that it’s actually going to stick.”
Ready for Indy: “This week we go to Indy,” crew chief Randall Burnett said. “’I won there as a race engineer for Jamie McMurray in the past (7/25/10) and that was pretty special. We are looking forward to going there. We didn’t go to the test. We decided to regroup and really work on our cars back at the shop. The No. 27 RCR (Richard Childress Racing) team did go test there with Paul Menard. Being an alliance car, we can take a look at what they did and learn from them and have a good plan going into the weekend.”
Testing Watkins Glen International: After Indy, we have the Watkins Glen test,” Burnett said. “We’ve been working hard on that. We’re getting a good game plan together. We’ve got two days we can learn quite a bit of stuff there. Following our test, we have Pocono Raceway. We had a really good car there back in June. We just fought some track position there at the end of the race. We’ve got a busy couple of weeks, but we look forward to everything we’ve got going on.”
FAST FACTS:
Career Starts: 282
Wins: 1
Top-fives: 8
Top-10s: 41
Pole Awards: 4
First Start: 3/25/2007 Bristol
First Pole: 4/10/2010 Phoenix
Last Pole: 8/8/15 Watkins Glen
Best Start: 1 – 4/10/2010 Phoenix
Best Finish: 1 – 8/10/2014 Watkins Glen
Driver DOB: 12/16/1981
Hometown: San Jose, Calif.
Crew Chief: Randall Burnett
