Two of the surprise performers in the Sprint Cup Series this year have been Paul Menard Jr. and A.J. Allmendinger, both of whom have been in and around the top 10 in the standings through the first quarter of the season.
While Menard has dropped out of the top 10 to 15th in recent weeks, Allmendinger is closing in on a top-10 spot. As the circuit heads to Darlington Raceway for Saturday’s Showtime Southern 500, Allmendinger is 11th in the standings, just 12 points behind 10th-place Tony Stewart.
Allmendinger, who persevered through a rookie season that saw him fail to qualify 19 times, has an average finish of 15th through this season’s first nine races, with a best of seventh last week at Richmond and a worst of 31st at Bristol. He has four finishes of 11th or better.
“We have kind of had just a solid year,” Allmendinger said on this week’s NASCAR teleconference. “We have not done anything spectacular yet. I think the biggest thing, especially with this points system the way it is, is we have not done anything to shoot ourselves in the foot.
“We had one really bad race at Bristol where we got caught up in an early wreck, but everything else has been pretty solid.”
He quickly pointed out that there’s room for improvement, and that he and his team will need to be better to realistically contend for a Chase berth.
“I think there are just certain areas we’ve got to work on, really, including Bristol,” he said, adding that he and his team need to be better at keeping their cars fast throughout the entire race.
Allmendinger said he knows he generally is not considered a Chase contender at this point.
“We still need to be better to be considered one of those teams that are up there every week fighting to be in the top 10 to be in contention to win races,” he said. “Do I think we have the potential to get there? Definitely. But are we there yet? Not yet.”
Wild-card thinking
The new formula for setting the field for the Chase for the Sprint Cup has two “wild card” spots reserved for race winners not among the top 10 in the standings after the 26-race regular season.
After nine races, only two drivers, Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick, have multiple race wins. Busch, who like Harvick has two victories, said that’s not enough to begin feeling confident about making the Chase.
“Two’s probably going to be borderline,” he said. “I think if you get three, you can probably guarantee yourself a spot. If you get four, yeah, you locked yourself in.”
Nationwide Sadler
When Elliott Sadler, an experienced Sprint Cup driver, moved back to a full-time gig on the Nationwide Series, he immediately became a preseason favorite to win the championship, especially after new rules prohibited Cup regulars from running for the Nationwide title.
But Sadler hasn’t dominated NASCAR’s No. 2 circuit this year.
His 38th-place finish in the season opener at Daytona put him in a hole that he’s just now digging out of.
Headed to Darlington he is second place, six points behind leader Justin Allgaier.
He has made his comeback on the strength of three fifth-place and two fourth-place finishes in the past six races.
Truex team in the pits
Expressing his displeasure with the performance of his pit crew during Saturday’s race at Richmond International Raceway, Martin Truex Jr., reportedly radioed to his crew that they were all fired.
It may have come across as a comment made during the heat of battle, one that he would take back once he had time to cool off, but this week his Michael Waltrip Racing team did replace the crew’s tire changer and tire carriers.
Steve Hallam, the team’s executive vice president, said in a statement that “the No. 56 has experienced several challenges on pit road, and we feel the need to intervene.”
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