Final Practice Not What AJ Hoped

AJ Allmendinger's Best Buy Ford Fusion will line up from the back of the pack on Sunday after Richard Petty Motorsports elected to make a motor change following the final practice session at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday. AJ, who finished the 2009 race third, was slated to start the race from 15th after his strong run in the duels on Thursday.

But a plume of steam spelled the end of that as the team wisely elected to make the change, which will see him start the race from the back of the 43 car field. While the setback was a disapointment, AJ knows that he's climbed higher mountains than this before, and with 500 miles to go on Sunday, can do it again.

"It's too bad,but you know maybe we are just getting some bad luck out of the way before the race starts!" said AJ as he entertained some guests from ActiveWater. "The car was pretty good a the start of the session and we learned some things for the race, but the conditions have been changing so much  that we'll just have to see what we have tomorrow. You don't like not getting the chance to get some time with the new motor in before the race, but that's just what we have to  deal with tomorrow. We've been fast so far, and hopefully we can just work our way towards the front in the race."

 After practice, AJ took off for some relaxing golf ahead of a very busy day on Sunday.