Allmendinger in long slump; may be factor this weekend

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Three years ago, AJ Allmendinger didn’t want the second Sunday in August to end, so he lingered in victory lane at Watkins Glen International to soak in the atmosphere with his crew.

The victory on the road course stamped Allmendinger as a threat to win every time NASCAR’s Cup Series visits one of the two twisting layouts on its schedule. With the playoffs looming, he’s 27th in points and needs a victory to qualify for the postseason as the series stops at the Glen for Sunday’s race, his best shot left to produce that needed result.

If there’s any added pressure, he doesn’t feel it.

“No pressure, man. Honestly,” said Allmendinger, who drives the No. 47 Chevrolet for JTG Daugherty Racing. “I think the outside world tries to put pressure on it. All we can do is go out there and give it our best effort.

“The race track will always be special, obviously, being my first win, reliving those memories,” said Allmendinger, who gained experience on road courses during his time in open-wheel racing. “But when it comes to pressure, it’s in every week. We’ll see how it plays out.”

That victory in 2014 came in Allmendinger’s 213rd Cup Series start, and he did it by winning a two-lap duel at the end with Marcos Ambrose, who had emerged as the driver to beat at Watkins Glen. Ambrose had been dominant in NASCAR’s top two series at the track, winning two straight Cup Series races and four straight events in the second-tier Xfinity circuit.

The previous year, Allmendinger also won on the road courses at Road America and Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Xfinity competition, but success at the top level has been elusive. He finished fourth at Watkins Glen a year ago but never challenged winner Denny Hamlin. In June, he qualified fifth but finished 35th at Sonoma Raceway — the Cup Series’ other road course — and is riding a 107-race winless streak.

“This year, we’ve been a little off on speed kind of everywhere we’ve been to,” said Allmendinger, who has one top-five finish and four top-10 performances in 21 starts this year. “We’re working hard to try to get better as a race team. We’ll see when we get there on Saturday what kind of speed we have in practice.

“It’s one of those things, you don’t really know until you get to the race track and you get to practice and qualifying where you stand on speed.”

For the second weekend in a row, the Cup Series schedule is condensed. Teams won’t practice until today, and qualifying is Sunday at 12:05 p.m., three hours before the race.

That means it’s important to be ready to go when you get to the track, Allmendinger said.

“You don’t have that time to really work on your car,” he said. “Each practice is 55 minutes long, and if you don’t unload very well, it’s one of those things that you kind of get behind real quick. The last couple of weeks we haven’t unloaded great, and then it’s hard to try and catch up because the time just goes quick.”