Allmendinger Is Suspended After A Failed Drug Test
Daytona Beach, Fl- Saturday evening, Steve O’ Donnell, Senior Vice President of Racing Operations for NASCAR, announced they suspended Penske Racing driver A.J. Allmendinger as a result failing a random drug test.
“NASCAR has a strict drug-testing program that Penske Racing fully supports. Penske Racing will work with NASCAR through this process and its next steps,” the team said in a statement.
Immediately after Allmendinger’s suspension, Penske Racing was forced to call Sam Hornish Jr to replace the driver just 90 minutes prior to race time.
“Right before I was about to do the last segment on my Speed TV show, I got a call from Mike Nelson while I was in the studio and all that I could think about was that he was calling to harass me about my tie,” Hornish said. “Obviously, that’s not the case. For me, it was a lot of waiting around. I’m sure for everyone else it was hectic. We sat there and had no idea what was going to happen from the time that I left Charlotte to when I got to Daytona. … I actually went and got a sandwich and tried to hydrate as much as I could. I think I drank 18 bottles of water knowing how hot it was down here.”
Aided by police escorts, Hornish Jr arrived eight minutes before the Coke Zero 400 was sent to begin in Daytona.
“It’s really been a whirlwind since we were notified, and we really just needed to get Sam back to Daytona. We spoke briefly with A.J. before he left, and we agreed we’d talk when we get back. Certainly there’s no closure, and it’s just not that simple of a situation,” Cindric said. “We need to let the process take care of itself. It’s a situation we’ve never been in before, and when we were notified he failed the test, the next step really became getting Sam to Daytona and agreeing to table everything else until we’re all back.”
Penske Racing hired A.J. Allmendinger in late December to fill in for Kurt Busch who had parted ways with the team. Prior to Penske, Allmendinger raced with Richard Petty Motorsports. Cindric stated that Penske remains behind their first-year driver.
“He’s our driver and that why it’s important to understand all the facts,” Cindric said. “It’s very difficult to speculate on how it should be handled. On one side, we have personal relationships, and on the other, well, it’s a business side. We’ve not been through this before, and we just really want to understand this some more.”
Austin Dillon’s weekend again marred by failed inspection
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[/media-credit]Austin Dillon’s weekend at the Daytona International Speedway started with him defending his Kentucky win after his car failed post race inspection. It ended with him again having to defend his team after another failed inspection.
On Thursday Dillon stated the loose bolt on his winning No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet was not an advantage, nor intentional. It was something that happened during the course of the event and while some might take away from his win, he was confident that the true racers knew what happened.
Then on Friday he went out and laid down the fastest lap in qualifying. The pole would have been the third of his career and second straight. That was until Dillon’s car went through post qualifying inspection and was found to have an open cooling hose in the cockpit.
The car failed under section 20A-2.1J, the rule that stipulates what teams can do with the ductwork. It’s a no-no because it can be an aerodynamic advantage. Dillon’s time was disallowed, the pole award given to Ricky Stenhouse Jr., with Dillon moving to the rear of the field. He would however, get to keep his selection of pit stall since those had already been taken care of.
Speaking after the race was over Dillon acknowledged that his team made a mistake. But said that while crew chief Danny Stockman is already on probation because of trouble back in April with front bumper covers, and last weekend in Kentucky, he doesn’t see any serious penalties coming from NASCAR this week.
“I’m not concerned,” he said. “I think there was another car that went through tech and had the same problem we did and they caught it before they went through inspection. I wish they would have caught ours because it was a mistake that we made.
“The guys are from the Truck Series and you don’t have to tape up the duct inside. The hosed that was untapped was right beside to my AC hose and my AC hose wasn’t hooked either. It was a bummer because it was another mistake; it’s two in a row. It’s not fun and I know my grandfather [owner Richard Childress] was upset with the guys.
“It sucks because the guys work so hard, making these mistakes it’s just like, man we’ve go to stop doing that, we’ve got to be on our game. We were able to recover tonight; I think this was a good one for the guys. Have a torn up car, they’re not going to be fun fixing that but I’m sure they’ll be happy to after the last two weeks and things that have gone on after tech and stuff.”
When the green flag flew in Friday night’s Subway Jalapeno 250 Dillon had to come from the back of the field, 42nd. It never worried him though, knowing he had a fast enough car to eventually get to the front. It was all about making the right moves and finding the right drafting partners. Just as the team had done all season, it was about staying focused and being there at the end.
By halfway he was 16th and charging. The Big One at lap 65 took out 16 cars, but not Dillon. Having positioned himself just right that he was able to work his way through the mess and into contention. He was sitting third by lap 75.
Finally Dillon found the lead, on four different occasions for eight laps.
“It was a wild race, I think everybody going into it knew it was going to be like that,” Dillon said. “We were three wide for quite a while in that pack and the big one happened and my spotter Andy Houston did a great job. He did a good job of just ensuring me where to go and that kept our car clean and let us finish the race.”
A debris caution would set up the race’s conclusion, a green-white-checkered finish. Suddenly Dillon went from pushing eventual winner Kurt Busch and looking to make a move on the last lap, to being pushed by Michael Annett as the two tried to overtake Busch and Stenhouse.
“Coming down to the end it was great working with Kurt Busch, didn’t want to see that caution we had broken away from the pack a little bit there and it had us out front,” recalled Dillon. “And when it all happened there I got to thank Michael he did a great job of pushing me and sticking with me and when it comes to that you’re fighting for everything to get someone to go with you and somebody to trust and Michael did a good job of that. I wanted to thank him.”
It was only fitting for Dillon that with the way his week and weekend had gone it ended just as crazy. Just yards from the finish line, being pushed by Annett to a third place finish, Dillon spun through the grass. He ended up finishing fourth.
No harm, no foul though. The two laughed and talked about it afterwards. Both saying how happy they were to come away with top five finishes. As well as being two of the four drivers qualified for next weekend’s Dash4Cash $100,000 bonus at New Hampshire.
Even better for Dillon, he remains second in the NNS point standings. But has moved to within two points of leader and teammate Elliott Sadler. That’s barring any further penalties this coming week.
“It’s cool to be qualified for the Dash4Cash,” Dillon said. “It’s not fun coming across the checkered spinning out but we did it in the best fashion you can. And I told [ESPN] there’s not better feeling then coming to Daytona and coming to the checkered and having a run on the two leaders there at the end.
“We had a heck of a run going and Ricky blocked and I tried to cross him up and got hooked a little bit. I probably should have wedged it in there and crashed everybody. I got hooked back left. It was a fun race, that was a awesome feeling coming to it. I was smiling that whole last lap.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. grabs top five finish after rough night in Daytona
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[/media-credit]After suffering one of the worst slumps in his career since his rookie year back in 2010, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. continued his upward swing on Friday night at Daytona.
Stenhouse finished second in the Subway Jalapeno 250 in his No. 6 NOS Energy Drink Ford Mustang. It was his third straight top 11 finish after finishing no better than 25th in the three races before that. Finally having a night where everything went right and the team looked like the defending champions they are.
“It’s pretty cool,” Stenhouse said afterwards. “A couple years ago, I think our rookie season, we were third coming to the line when [Dale Earnhardt] Junior won. That was really exciting.”
Stenhouse’s night wasn’t exactly smooth though even though it started off with an inherited pole when Austin Dillon failed inspection. When the green flag flew Stenhouse would run up front and find drafting partners in Danica Patrick and Joe Nemechek.
But on lap 76 he spun Brad Sweet off turn four. The two had been tandem drafting when it became a case of bump drafting gone bad, Stenhouse anticipating Sweet making different move and getting him loose. Sweet would be done for the night, Stenhouse continued on but found more trouble on lap 82. This time it was contact with Jeffery Earnhardt going down the backstretch.
Earnhardt was not pleased and gave Stenhouse the one finger salute the next lap around. According to Earnhardt the shot that Stenhouse gave him in turns one and two was too aggressive and then going down the backstretch he hit him even harder. The contact sent Earnhardt around and collected Patrick.
“We ran up on him pretty quick,” said Stenhouse about the accident. “The 31 [Justin Allgaier] we were working together there, and the 15 [Earnhardt] was in front of us. I tried to get to the inside of him there going in one and he chopped us.
“I kind of pushed him out, trying to get him in front so I could hook back up with the 33 [Kevin Harvick] and then just caught him a little hard there. I hit him a couple of times in one and two, and then kind of thought he would drag the brake a little bit, but, then again, I probably should have known a little better.
“He didn’t practice that in practice – two car drafting – and he’s not out here with us every week, so I probably should have thought a little bit better before I did that.”
There wasn’t too much time for Stenhouse to dwell, he still had a shot to win the race. On the green-white-checkered finish Stenhouse pushed eventual winner Kurt Busch to the lead. Except, that was all he could do because the tandem of Austin Dillon and Michael Annett quickly closed from behind and ruined any chance Stenhouse had of making a move on Busch.
“Restarting 11th with a green-white-checkered and I got a really good restart, shot up the middle and it just kind of seemed like they parted,” recalled Stenhouse. “The 1 [Busch] was coming back and I knew he was fast and we were able to push all night. I felt like we had one of the best cars that could push, so getting hooked up with him I knew he would make the right decisions to get to the front, so I just pushed as hard as I could and there at the end I never even looked out the windshield.
“I was just making sure I was pushing him and looked in the mirror to see where the 3 [Dillon] and the 43 [Annett] were coming, and tried to block them. I was hoping they weren’t going to have as big of a run on us so that I could try to make a pass for the lead.”
It was Stenhouse’s first top five since he won at Iowa in May. After stumbling out of the point lead and into third, the finish will go a long way towards fighting back. Maybe Daytona will again end up being the turning point for Stenhouse’s season, just as it did in 2010, which saved is career.
Now with 16 races down and 17 to go in the season, Stenhouse still sits third in points. But he’s closed to within 18 points of the leaders heading into New Hampshire next weekend.
“For our first time with NOS Energy on the car, I think they’re happy,” Stenhouse said. “We got a very good run out of it and we’re gonna get back to winning here pretty soon.”
