AJ a Solid Seventh in Daytona Duel

Daytona Beach, FL-12 February 2010-AJ Allmendinger got a promising start to the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup season in the No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion with a strong run to 7th in the Gatorade Duel at Daytona International Speedway on Thursday. The non-points race was part of the complicated grid-setting process for Sunday’s Daytona 500.

AJ moved up to third at the start, and passed for second before a full course caution sent the field into the pits for stops. AJ’s first stop didn’t go as planned, as he slid into his stall and overshot the markers. But he got rolled back, the tires were changed, and he was on his way with a small change to the car.

He restarted 20th, moved up to 9th on before losing the draft and falling to 17th, only to fight back again to score 7th at the finish.

Despite the strong result, AJ was disappointed after his first outing in the No. 43.

“I’m a little frustrated with myself on the pitstop, because we definitely had a car to win this. The car was good enough that we recovered from it but without a radio, there were some things I couldn’t do out there.”

AJ was working his way back up, but after making bump drafting contact with the 78, there was damage to the front side of the car. But with the radio problem, he couldn’t get in contact with the team to see what the damage was, locking him into accepting 7th at the finish of the 60 lap race.

The team still used creative solutions for the radio situation, as AJ would run high under caution flags to answer “yes,” to questions about the handling, and run low to answer “no.”

So the countdown is on for Sunday’s race, which will take a green flag shortly after 1:00 PM on Sunday...


About Walldinger Racing, Inc.:
Walldinger Racing was formed in 2006 to support AJ Allmendinger’s motorsports career by developing commercial opportunities and partnership programs.