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Earnhardt Jr. looking forward to Richmond with cushion on Chase bubble

By
SM Staff
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Photo Credit: Mike Holtsclaw

HAMPTON, Ga. – Dale Earnhardt Jr. was breathing a little easier Sunday night at the Atlanta Motor Speedway after an eighth place finish moved him closer to the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

“I was real thankful the car was as good as it was,” he said after climbing out of his National Guard / Race2Achieve.org Chevrolet. “We have struggled here and not ran great here the last several trips. It’s so hard and it’s such a struggle to get a car that has a good balance and we did.”

With the right balance on the car, the focus on the night became tires. Most notably spinning the tires on the restarts, which was a problem for many drivers. Earnhardt Jr. saw it first hand when teammate Jeff Gordon stacked up the outside lane early and collected Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne – who suffered major damage that ruined their nights – but luckily Earnhardt Jr. was unscathed.

The 88 team carried on and kept Earnhardt Jr. amongst the leaders as the race ran into long green flag runs that saw many cars go a lap down. Not even a potential loose wheel derailed his night. Goodyear brought the new zoned tire and with Atlanta being slick and tough, Earnhardt Jr. said he was worried about it entering the night but that it held up pretty well.

“We had a fast car, a faster car than a lot of guys,” the happy driver said afterwards as he watched his team load up his Chevrolet.

Happy with tires, happy with the car, all Earnhardt Jr. needed was the lane choice. If he had it, he might have “easily” finished in the top five, although perhaps not close enough to Kyle Busch, who ran away with the race over the course of the final 21 laps. But he’ll take his top 10 and head to Richmond and the final race to make the Chase.

“We just get to go there with a really nice cushion on the guys behind us to make the Chase and go to Chicago and enjoy all that experience,” he said.

He’s a three-time winner at RIR, the last in 2006. But recently he hasn’t been on par with his performance and has found himself fighting for a decent finish. The last two seasons he’s had to go to Richmond and fight for his Chase spot, even battling back from an early wreck in 2011.

Last season he won the pole for the event, led 64 of the races first 93 laps, but finished a disappointing 14th. He has just two top 10 finishes in the last nine RIR races.

So this season as the Steve Letarte led team found themselves again heading toward another Chase defining race at Richmond, they decided to utilize one of their NASCAR tests. Hoping that it will lead to a little less stress this time around.

“We tested at Richmond so hopefully that’s going to pay off for us,” Earnhardt Jr. said.

“We worked really hard trying to figure out some things because we haven’t ran great there, similar to Atlanta, in the last several trips. We worked really hard at the test and we’ll see if that worked out for us.”

Kyle Busch clinches Chase spot with fourth win in Atlanta

By
SM Staff
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Photo Credit: Ted Seminara

HAMPTON, Ga. – In a night of attrition that claimed both of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, Kyle Busch was around at the end of the ADVOCARE 500 and took home his second career win at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Busch led the final 36 laps of the event and survived a restart with 21 laps to go with older brother Kurt breathing down his neck. Joey Logano, who led a race high 76 laps, was unable to run down Busch after charging to second. For Busch it’s the fourth win of the season and the 28th of his NSCS career.

“Man, I don’t know where it came from, but these guys never gave up,” said a pleased Busch on the way his car responded late. “They made some really good calls and I commend them. It was their race today. I appreciate them hanging in there with me, although I was pretty graphic sometimes, but that’s what this sport is all about.”

Logano helped his Chase chances by moving to eighth in the standings. With teammate and defending champion Brad Keselowski suffering an engine failure, Logano might be the only Penske entry to make NASCAR’s playoffs. Keselowski finished 35th after leading early laps with a car capable of running in the top 10.

“What can you do? You can sit here and be mad and stomp your feet and be a jerk about it, but it just broke,” said Keselowski. “That’s racing. It’s kind of been the story of our year.”

Keselowski will head to Richmond 15th in points and in need of different scenarios if he’s to make the Chase and defend his championship. He wasn’t the only champion in trouble on Sunday night though, point leader Jimmie Johnson finished four laps down.

Johnson was caught up in a wreck early as all four Hendrick Motorsports cars got a piece when teammate Jeff Gordon spun the tires on a restart and stacked up the outside lane. Johnson ran into the back of Dale Earnhardt Jr. as Kasey Kahne ran into the back of Johnson.

Earnhardt Jr. was left unscathed and finished eighth while Johnson and Kahne both suffered major damage. Johnson remains the point leader over Clint Bowyer, who was the dominant car the first half of the event before blowing an engine, by 28 points. Johnson however, has finished outside the top 25 the past three weeks.

There were nine cautions throughout the 325-lap event with 13 different leaders.

Seven drivers are now locked into the 2013 Chase heading into Richmond: Jimmie Johnson, Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, and Kasey Kahne.

L.P. Dumoulin wins Pinty’s presents the Clarington 200 at CTMP

By
SM Staff
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Photo Credit: Ashley McCubbin

L.P. Dumoulin led the second half of the Pinty’s presents the Clarington 200 at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park to pick up his second victory of the season. Dumoulin went with the strategy of pitting early and worked his way to the lead on lap 31 around Marc-Antoine Camirand. From then on, Dumoulin held on and took home the victory.

“We had a good strategy by pitting early for tires and fuel, and after that we just gained positions after everyone else was pitting,” Dumoulin said. “I was trying really hard to keep a good pace and not overdriving my car so that for the last 10 laps I could be really hard on it.

“I didn’t know the race was going to go red [flag] and that they were going to give the checkered flag. I was just ready to go and finish the race.”

The race was scheduled for 51 laps, though was cut to 42 laps as a result of it not being completed in its allotted time slot. The final caution flew at lap 42 when Ron Beauchamp Jr. and Ray Courtemanche Jr. got sideways, with Steve Mathews driving straight into Courtemache’s car up in turn eight.

Martin Roy would play his strategy right and stay out of the accidents to finish second for his best career NASCAR Canadian Tire Series finish.

Andrew Ranger, running a car for D.J. Kennington, finished third to mark his fifth top 10 in six career starts at CTMP.

“My car was really, really good and I was very happy because it was my first weekend with D.J. Kennington,” Ranger said. “At the end I was trying to push really hard, at the same time trying to save my tires, but the last caution came out and we were not able to finish the race.”

Ranger’s car owner D.J. Kennington finished fourth to take over the points lead, now sitting three points ahead of Scott Steckly heading to the final two races of the season. Steckly finished 11th.

J.R. Fitzpatrick rounded out the top five, followed by Camirad, Gary Klutt, pole sitter Jeff Lapcevich, Howie Scannell Jr. and Robin Buck.

Four NASCAR Camping World Truck Series drivers ran the NCAT race in preparation for their own event. Jeb Burton was the highest finishing of the four, finishing 12th with Chad Hackenbracht behind him in 13th. James Buescher pulled behind the wall after 34 laps due to a broken rear-end while Ty Dillon pulled behind the wall after 32 laps due to over-heating from earlier contact in the race.

Jason Hathaway, who came into the event third in points, was on pit road for a couple laps due to mechanical issues under  the hood, which resulted in a 25th place finish. Hathaway falls to fourth in points, now 27 points behind Kennington for the lead and six points behind Dumoulin for third.

The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series is in action once again next weekend at Barrie Speedway on Saturday night.

Chase Elliott wrecks Ty Dillon to win Chevrolet Silverado 250 at CTMP

By
SM Staff
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Photo Credit: Ashley McCubbin

The final lap of the Chevrolet Silverado 250 was filled with drama as Chase Elliott would wreck Ty Dillon in turn 10 to take the victory.

Going into turn nine, Elliott got himself alongside Dillon a bit as they went into 10, contact was made and resulted in Dillon on the tires.

“I hated to do that but I had to do that,” Elliott commented after the race. “Not very often do you have a truck as good as the truck we had today and have your strategy as good as ours did today. We had a couple curveballs thrown at us there but were able to escape all that and put ourselves in a good position on the restart at the end.”

It marks Elliott’s first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win in his sixth start as he becomes the series’ youngest winner at the age of 17.

“I had the opportunity there going into 10,” Elliott added. “I thought the 3 (Dillon) was sputtering. I felt he was really close or out of gas or something and got to his right-rear quarter panel and tried to move him out of the way and put him in the fence. That’s not how I race. I think anybody that has raced me before knows that’s now how I do things.”

Dillon got credited with a 17th place finish and would have words for Elliott after the race, stating that if Elliott was at Iowa, he wouldn’t finish the race.

“Everything comes full circle,” Elliott commented. “I hope it doesn’t but I’ve learned that I’ve lost really close races, I’ve won really close races and eventually things like that come full circle.”

At the same time on the final lap, Max Papis and Mike Skeen would bump into each other back and forth for the third and fourth positions, resulting in heavy damage to both trucks and Papis finishing sixth while Skeen finished 13th. The pair of road course veterans would share a heated discussion on pit road following the competition of the race.

Then behind them, Brad Keselowski Racing teammate Ross Chastain made contact with Ryan Blaney in turn eight, resulting in Blaney going around. Chastain got credited with seventh while Blaney got 16th.

Escaping all three incidents first would be Chad Hackenbracht, scoring a second place finish in just his third Camping World Truck Series start.

“We just sorted of raced our own race and Rudy got the truck handling really good; we didn’t make a lot of changes,” the young driver commented after the race. “I couldn’t ask for much better of a race. I’ll be smiling for the next couple of days here. I’m pretty pumped.”

Miguel Paludo ran inside the top five most of the day and came home with a solid third place finish.

“Unfortunately, strategy didn’t pay off for us,” Paludo commented. “The caution didn’t come out at the right time and on the last top, I dropped from first to 14th with like 17 laps to go, clearly didn’t go like we wanted as a team. Good points day for the team and just it was exciting to be here. It was a really good race.”

Darrell Wallace Jr. finished fourth, joining his Kyle Busch Motorsports teammate Hackenbracht in the top five. The third KBM truck of Joey Coulter finished 26th after having to make a trip to the garage mid-race due to making heavy contact with the turn eight tire barrier. Ron Hornaday Jr. rounded out the top five.

As stated previous, Papis finished sixth followed by Chastain, Timothy Peters, pole sitter James Buescher and points leader Matt Crafton. Crafton now leads Buescher by 47 points.

Johnny Sauter, who was third in points coming into the weekend, suffered handling and mechanical problems throughout the day with his Toyota Tundra.

Keen Parts to Sponsor Jeffrey Earnhardt in Richmond

By
SM Archive
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Hornish grabs another top three finish, extends point lead after Atlanta

By
SM Staff
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Photo Credit: Barry Albert

HAMPTON, Ga. – Should Sam Hornish Jr. go on to win his first NASCAR Nationwide Series championship at the end of the season, he might look at the month of August as where he made the push.

Hornish finished third Saturday night in the Great Clips / Grit Chips 300 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. While he never led a lap, running inside the top 10 all night kept Hornish out of trouble and in contention should an opportunity arise. The final restart with seven laps to go provided such an opening as Hornish went from sixth to the top three.

“It was a good set of calls and really having a good lane choice there at the end, being in the right place,” Hornish said afterwards. “So many times you get stuck out here by being in the wrong lane, but tonight it really worked out for us and we were exactly where we wanted to be. Our Ford Mustang was really good on the long run and I was glad we were able to make solid adjustments on it to be able to make it good for that last short run.”

The top three finish was the fourth in five weeks for Hornish, his worst finish of the month being 12th last weekend in Bristol. That consistency has Hornish in control of the NNS title fight; he extended his point lead on Austin Dillon to 10 heading into Richmond next Friday night. Nine races remain in the season.

“We sure hope so,” Hornish said when asked if his team had regained their early season consistency.

“Last week we ran on seven cylinders for about three-quarters of the race, so to get a 12th out of that was pretty good, so I’ve been real happy with the performance that the guys have been giving me as far as the race cars.”

Saturday night Hornish drove a brand new car and said he feels confident the team is continually evolving, bettering themselves and that there’s the potential for the same amount of success at each of the remaining tracks. Of those he’s battling for the title, Hornish is one of three in the top 10 who have a win already this season.

“I feel like our bad days need to be a 12th place finish, so the fact that we can take days like [Saturday] where we weren’t as good as we probably needed to be and were probably a fifth place car, and were able to get a third out of it, that’s great.”

Even with the championship battle long from over, Hornish can look ahead with eagerness He’s won at Phoenix, which the NNS will head to late in the season and the mile-and-a-halfs have been where the No. 12 Penske team have performed their best this season.

“We look at places like Charlotte coming back around and Kansas and places I feel we’ve got a great opportunity to go there and run well, and then we go to a couple of short tracks like Richmond and Phoenix that I’ve traditionally run very well at, so my outlook couldn’t be any better,” said Hornish.

“The tracks that we’re going to, Bristol was the last one where I felt like that could be a downfall for us. I feel like if we go to these next ones and we race the way that we should, we’ve got a pretty good shot at it.”

James Buescher scores pole for Chevrolet Silverado 250 at CTMP

By
SM Staff
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Photo Credit: Geoff Burke/Getty Images

James Buescher stayed true to his word. He said as he continued to lay down laps, he would continue to get faster. That played true in qualifying as the defending truck series champion laid down a lap of 81.074 seconds to score the pole for the Chevrolet Silverado 250 at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.

“The biggest thing is the more laps,” the driver of the No. 31 Motomaster Eliminator Chevrolet Silverado said. “Every lap I make, everytime I went out, I got faster every time. So I feel like the more laps I can get, the better prepared I will be.”

It will be important for Buescher to have a good run as after some bad luck to start the year, Buescher has turned his season around and sits second in points, 49 points behind Matt Crafton.

“People say we’re back in the title hunt, but I don’t think we ever fell out,” he said. “We’re just closer to the top now and plenty of racing left to go; we’re just past halfway.”

Rookie Ryan Blaney qualified his No. 29 Cooper Standard Ford in the second spot, 0.17 seconds off of Buescher.

“This team has been on a tear of late,” Blaney said coming into the weekend. “I’m confident our Cooper Standard team will have a shot at winning Sunday afternoon which will put us right back in the championship hunt.”

Mike Skeen qualified third with his No. 6 Hawk Performance Chevrolet as he looks to make his Camping World Truck Series debut.

In his past four Pirelli World Challenge GT Series starts at CTMP, he has four poles and four wins. Skeen currently sits sixth in the World Challenge GT Series standings after winning at Lime Rock earlier this year.

“Anytime you have that much success with a track you’re comfortable with it,” Skeen commented. “But this is a whole other world. I’ve had very little time in stock cars and not certainly any round here.”

Chase Elliott, who led both practices earlier in the day, rounded out the top five in fifth.

Miguel Paludo qualified sixth, followed by Ty Dillon, Max Papis, Chad Hackenbracht and Darrell Wallace Jr.

Points leader Matt Crafton qualified in the 13th position.

The Chevrolet Silverado 250 is set to start tomorrow at 2pm EST.

Jeff Lapcevich scores first career NASCAR Canadian Tire Series pole at CTMP

By
SM Staff
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Photo Credit: Matthew Manor/Getty Images

43-year-old Jeff Lapcevich would lay down the quickest lap (1:24.1 seconds) at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park to win the pole for the Pinty’s presents the Clarington 200 at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. It marks the first career pole for the veteran in his 52nd career start.

“This is great,” Lapcevich commented after his pole winning lap. Lapcevich is running the No. 76 on his Tim Hortons Dodge this season rather than the No. 23  in honor of his father, who passed away during the off-season.

Lapcevich has made five starts this season, with his best finish being second back in May at CTMP. In seven starts on the road course, he has yet to win a race, though has six top 10 finishes.

“We’ll go see what we got,” Lapcevich added. “We’ll just set a good pace and I know it’s good on the long runs so if I can stay cool behind the wheel, we should be in good shape.”

Road course guru Andrew Ranger qualified second, only 0.043 seconds behind Lapcevich, after being one of the late entries for the race. Ranger had called his old car owner Dave Jacombs to run, yet Jacombs already had drivers in both of his cars. Ranger then got talking with defending series champion D.J. Kennington and Kennington prepared a car for Ranger to run this weekend.

Ranger has made two NCATs starts this year, finishing first at Circuit ICAR and second at Trois Rivieres. In five starts at CTMP, he has two wins with his worst finish being a sixth.

L.P. Dumoulin was third quickest after leading the first practice session this weekend with a lap of one minute and 24.2 seconds. The driver of the No. 47 WeatherTech Canada/Bellemare Dodge won the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park race in May and currently sits fourth in points.

“We’ve been fast all day,” Dumoulin commented. “In qualifications, someone had a problem in turn one with an axle and I think it got a little slippery. We have a good position for the long race. We’ll just run strong and see how it works out tomorrow.”

Three-time CTMP winner J.R. Fitzpatrick was fourth quickest as he looks to turn his season around following some bad luck.

Jason Hathaway, who won the last race ran by the Canadian Tire Series at Antogonish, was fifth quickest as he looks to carry the momentum. He currently sits third in points, 10 points behind points leader Scott Steckly.

Steckly was sixth quickest as he looks for his first win on the Bowmanville, Ontario road course.

“Obviously we like to be closer to the front but there was some oil dry on the track and we focus more on the race set-up rather than qualifying,” he commented afterwards.

Steckly, who finished third at CTMP in May, currently holds a four point lead over D.J. Kennington. He has won three races so far this year.

“We’re going to every race looking for the win and whatever happens, happens,” Steckly added.

Gary Klutt was seventh quickest, followed by Martin Roy, Peter Klutt and Kerry Micks. Kennington qualified in the 12th position.

Pos No. Name Sponsor Time Speed In Lap Laps Diff
1 76 Jeff Lapcevich Tim Hortons 01:24.1 105.277 3 3
2 28 Andrew Ranger La Cite de Mirabel Inc/Plancher2000.ca 01:24.1 105.223 2 4 0.043
3 47 L.P. Dumoulin WeatherTech Canada/Bellemare 01:24.2 105.144 3 4 0.106
4 84 J.R. Fitzpatrick Equipment Express 01:24.4 104.924 3 3 0.283
5 3 Jason Hathaway Snap on Tools/Rockstar Energy Drink 01:24.4 104.901 3 4 0.301
6 22 Scott Steckly Canadian Tire 01:24.5 104.745 2 3 0.427
7 59 Gary Klutt * K-Line/Legendary Motor Car Co. 01:24.5 104.714 3 4 0.452
8 90 Martin Roy Batteries Expert/Veloce 01:24.7 104.562 2 4 0.575
9 42 Peter Klutt Legendary Motorcar 01:24.8 104.435 2 4 0.678
10 02 Kerry Micks BDI/Leland/PartSource 01:24.8 104.369 2 4 0.731
11 88 Marc-Antoine Camirand * Burger Barn 01:24.8 104.342 3 5 0.753
12 17 D.J. Kennington Castrol Edge/Mahindra Tractors 01:25.0 104.094 2 7 0.955
13 27 Chad Hackenbracht Jacombs Racing 01:25.1 104.025 4 5 1.012
14 7 Jeb Burton State Water Heaters 01:25.1 104.005 4 4 1.028
15 4 Ty Dillon Fitzpatrick Motorsports 01:25.2 103.920 1 3 1.098
16 39 Alex Guenette * Kawasaki/Motos Illimitees, DLGL 01:25.2 103.914 3 4 1.103
17 24 James Buescher 22 Racing 01:25.3 103.834 4 4 1.168
18 60 Ron Beauchamp, Jr. Mopar/Exide/Pennzoil 01:25.5 103.534 3 7 1.415
19 66 Robin Buck Quaker State 01:25.5 103.502 2 4 1.442
20 04 J.F. Dumoulin Bellemare, Manac 01:26.0 102.928 5 5 1.919
21 56 Howie Scannell Jr. K&B Auto/Trailers by Jim Bray 01:26.0 102.880 3 4 1.959
22 50 Joey McColm TSC Stores/Canada’s Best Store Fixtures 01:26.1 102.819 4 4 2.010
23 5 Noel Dowler Emco, Rheem, Praxair 01:26.3 102.609 4 7 2.186
24 15 Steve Mathews Bill Mathews Motors 01:26.3 102.588 3 7 2.204
25 19 Brad Graham Holmar Plumbing 01:26.4 102.494 2 2 2.283
26 21 Jason White Bowers & Wilkins/Thermal Technolgy 01:26.5 102.298 4 4 2.448
27 97 Hugo Vannini VTI Motorsports 01:26.8 101.938 4 7 2.754
28 81 Larry Jackson Touchwood Cabinets/B&B Decals 01:26.9 101.878 3 3 2.805
29 69 Trevor Seibert Lake Excavating/EMCO Waterworks 01:27.1 101.654 2 6 2.997
30 09 Ryley Seibert * Lake Excavating/Emco/Marshall’s 01:28.5 100.010 2 3 4.428
31 9 Curtis Fielding * Fielding Estate Winery 01:28.6 99.966 2 3 4.467
32 14 James Van Domselaar Steel-Craft Door Products 01:29.0 99.513 2 3 4.870
33 29 Ray Courtemanche Jr. La Cite De Mirabel Inc. 01:29.1 99.303 3 3 5.058
34 98 Matthew Scannell * Trailers by Jim Bray 01:29.4 99.059 3 3 5.278
35 67 Dave Thorndyke Lube Source/Thorson EVT 01:29.6 98.768 3 6 5.541
36 99 Paul Jean * BFI Canada/Transport Humar 01:38.3 90.076 1 1 14.190

*Rookie of the Year contender

Harvick earns redemption win in dominating fashion at Atlanta

By
SM Staff
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Photo Credit: Noel Lanier

HAMPTON, Ga. – Kevin Harvick wasn’t about to lose another Nationwide Series race late in the going at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

After dominating this same race last season only to be passed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on the last lap, Harvick again dominated the Great Clips / Grit Chips 300 but held off a furious charge from Kyle Busch over the last seven laps. Harvick led 132 laps on his way to his first NNS win of the season, 40th of his career.

“We were definitely too tight, just had to change my approach there a little bit at the end, knew Kyle was going to go for it but it’s fun racing with him,” said Harvick in Victory Lane.

“That’s two years in a row that we’ve had a dominant car and you think something’s going to go wrong, we just kept digging and these guys did a great job all weekend. Brought the same stuff we had last year and it worked again.”

Busch led the first 57 laps after winning his seventh pole of the season. Harvick however, was the class of the field and once he drove to the lead he quickly established control of the event. Just four cautions on the night helped him stretch his lead over the likes of Busch, Joey Logano and teammate Austin Dillon.

Dillon, who entered the day six points behind championship leader Sam Hornish Jr., ran behind Harvick throughout the middle portion of the race but his downfall were restarts. On the final one, which set up the seven lap shootout, Dillon and those behind him in the outside lane lost all their track position when Logano spun his tires.

Dillon finished the night eighth as Hornish drove to third and extended his point lead to 10 with nine races remaining.

“Our Alliance Truck Parts Ford Mustang was pretty good over the long run, but what happened is every time we got a long ways throughout the run we’d get kind of stuck behind some people and the car would free up a little bit,” said Hornish who finished in the top three for the fourth time in the last five weeks.

“We made some good adjustments to be able to make the car better and I had a direction that I wanted to go and Greg [Erwin, crew chief] had a direction he wanted to go and we put them both together and we were able to get a good restart and get our way up to third, so I’m real happy with the performance that we put out tonight.”

For as dominant as Harvick was however, it didn’t come without a potential problem. Leading with 31 laps to go he thought he had a loose wheel but decided to stay on track unless it became too much to handle. Logano, running second at the time, began to close the lead before the final caution and subsequent pit stop changed the complexion of the race.

“We had an okay car today. It was good the first run, really, really loose the second run,” said Busch on his runner-up finish, which included tagging the wall just past halfway.

“It was about a third-place car. I was going to run behind the 33 and the 22, but for the last restart with seven to go, we even made changes to free up our car and it just wasn’t enough.”

Kasey Kahne rebounded from a lap 44 spin to finish fourth with Kyle Larson coming home fifth. Larson was the highest finishing rookie but was he and teammate Nelson Piquet Jr.’s car failed post race inspection for being too low in the front end.

Allmendinger returning to Sprint Cup full-time with JTG-Daugherty

By
SM Staff
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Photo Credit: Kirk Schroll

HAMPTON, Ga. – AJ Allmendinger’s whirlwind year continued Saturday at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.

JTG-Daugherty Racing officially introduced Allmendinger as their new driver beginning in 2014. He’ll replace Bobby Labonte in the No. 47 Sprint Cup Series entry. The team does not know as this time whether they’ll remain with Toyota or be switching to another manufacturer.

“Originally when we put AJ in the car, we were trying to verify some assumptions,” said co-owner Tad Geschickter during the announcement.

“I didn’t know AJ Allmendinger very well before then. He’s a phenomenal person. I was very impressed with his talent, enthusiasm, the way he interacted with the sponsors and everyone and the relationship I guess kind of evolved over the three races we’ve done.”

Allmendinger is driving the car this weekend at Atlanta and qualified the Scotts Products Toyota 13th for Sunday’s 500 mile ADVOCARE 500. The team has not decided if he will run any more than the already scheduled races as Labonte, who is currently healing from three broken ribs, is slated to finish the year in the car.

But for Allmendinger, he can wait. Over a year ago when he was suspended by NASCAR and taken out of his Penske Racing machine he had plenty of time to sit around and hope for the phone to ring. Penske eventually did come calling and after NASCAR reinstated Allmendinger he put him back behind the wheel.

His Cup ride was already taken but Allmendinger ran select Nationwide events, winning two road course races earlier this year, as well as IndyCar races. Including the Indianapolis 500 where he led laps and seemed to be in contention for the win late before a loose seatbelt derailed his day.

Now, he’s returning to the NSCS in a full-time ride.

“I’m excited. Just in the short amount of time that I’ve had a chance to work with them, the relationship that I’ve built – I feel like Tad and Jodi [Geschickter] and Brad [Daugherty] especially – everybody’s got such good family values, just a good values outlook on life,” said Allmendinger.

“It’s been great for me to be a part of the race team so far. It’s a good, little race team – a one car team. I feel like we can really build this race team and make it stronger and the guys that are on the race team starting with Bobby Hutchens [general manager] and on down the line – Brian Burns, the crew chief, all the guys – they’ve got such good energy, good attitude.”

All parties involved acknowledge the team needs to get stronger, as well as their alliances, in order for them to become consistent contenders. But all involved, including Allmendinger, believe that they can develop into something better. It’s going to take a lot of hard work and building, but the payoff will come.

“It’s just been a great year for me,” Allmendinger said. “All the opportunities that I’ve had to lead to this to be able to be back in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series full-time next year is something that at this point last year I never thought would happen.

“Just thoroughly excited and really ready to finish this season off strong and really looking forward to getting to Daytona next year. Just really thankful, happy and I feel very fortunate to have this opportunity.”

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