Allmendinger hopes he’s on the road to redemption
Road course favourite wants to make up for bad shift during June race in Sonoma
AJ Allmendinger isn’t exactly sure how it happened. More than a month later he’s still beating himself up over it, though.
“I just missed a shift,” Allmendinger said Friday at Watkins Glen International. “It’s something I’ve never really done before. It’s still on my mind, for sure.” That critical mistake happened in late June at Sonoma, one of two road courses NASCAR’s Cup Series competes on every year and it hurt. Allmendinger, one of the top road racers in NASCAR, led qualifying after the first round and ended up fifth behind Kyle Larson, then won the first stage of the race. The missed shift came about a third of the way through the 110-lap event and blew the engine on Allmendinger’s No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevy, ending his day.
“They’re the easiest things I’ve ever shifted in my life. For the thousands of times that I’ve shifted like that, it was something I’ve never really thought of,” Allmendinger said. “Probably a little lackadaisical on second to third because it’s so natural.” Allmendinger has a chance to atone for that mistake Sunday. He’s high on the list of favourites because of his prowess on the twisting tracks, honed during his days in open-wheel competition. The one and only win of his Cup career came four years ago at Watkins Glen.
“I’ve come here and put a lot of pressure on myself,” Allmendinger said. “We all know what the ultimate goal is when we show up here. I think over the past couple of years it’s gotten a little more difficult.
“If there’s a chance to win, we’ll take the chance. If not, we’ll do the best that we can.”
Only five races remain in the Cup regular season and this year the playoffs will include the road course at Charlotte. Allmendinger, Aric Almirola, Kyle Larson and Brad Keselowski are entered in Saturday’s Zippo 200 in the Xfinity Series. All are securely in the top 16 in points, the cutoff for the post-season, but none have won a Cup race this year.
“I just need to put it all together,” said Keselowski, who has finished second three times (2011-13) at The Glen. “Putting it all together on a road course is something I haven’t done (in Cup), but I’ve been really close. I think we had the speed to win here probably four times. Just didn’t put it all together.” As NASCAR struggles with lagging attendance, Watkins Glen International continues to hold its own. The historic natural terrain road course in the Finger Lakes region of western New York was voted the best NASCAR track for the third straight time in a poll released Friday by USA Today. Track president Michael Printup said all but 300 of the 38,000 grandstand seats were sold.
With sunshine in the forecast for Sunday, the turnout is expected to match recent years, which means a crowd in excess of 90,000.
It’s been almost a week since NASCAR Cup rookie Bubba Wallace became a headliner after a violent crash.
“I’m still reliving it,” Wallace said Friday at Watkins Glen. “And it’s a tough one to watch, but man we hit a ton.”
The Pocono race was red-flagged with six laps left after Wallace’s crash. He lost the brakes on his No. 43 Chevrolet and the car shot across the grass and slammed into the wall. Several tense moments passed before Wallace flipped down his window net.
Once out of the car, Wallace sat on the track and slumped against his car before being taken to the track medical centre. Wallace said he is healed and ready to go again. “It’s all good,” he said. Safety in NASCAR became a focus after the death of Dale Earnhardt at Daytona in 2001. That Wallace was not injured is a testament to the progress that’s been made. The collision cracked a section of the energy-absorbing SAFER barrier.