Allmendinger lobbying for Sprint All-Star race fan vote

AJ Allmendinger (Getty Images)
 AJ Allmendinger (Getty Images)
AJ Allmendinger (Getty Images)

AJ Allmendinger, driver of the No. 47 JTG Daugherty Chevrolet, was asked Friday why he thinks fans might vote him into next weekend’s Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

With the precise comedic timing of Jerry Seinfeld, Allmendinger shot back, “Because they’ve got to be tired of voting for Danica.”

Voting for Danica Patrick, now in her second full season in Sprint Cup, has seemingly become pro forma among the NASCAR electorate. With Dale Earnhardt Jr. already locked into this year’s all-star event, Patrick would seem to be a slam dunk for inclusion.

Allmendinger may not need the fan vote to get into next weekend’s race at Charlotte. His team has been looking strong in the late spring this year. He finished fifth last week at Talladega and sixth the race before in Richmond.

What’s up with a JTG Daugherty team that has struggled in the past? Credit, he said, being a member of the “Childress Alliance”.

“With the RCR alliance it’s been great because Richard (Childress) for our team at least has just opened his doors,” Allmendinger said. “I mean giving us all the information we can have. Our cars right now aren’t brand new cars, they are cars from late last year. A lot of the No. 29 cars a couple of them that

Kevin (Harvick) won with. So they are not brand new cars, but at the same point they are still fast race cars.

“They have given us just basically open information, engineering, set-ups, everything that we need to know what makes the cars fast.  It’s been great sharing and hopefully we are bringing something back to them. That has been my goal is to not just keep taking but hopefully bring something back to where they are learning and we can make everybody as a whole better. Richard has been just fantastic. I’ve been part of an alliance before and this is the best  I’ve ever seen. All credit goes to him and their race shop for allowing us to have that. Hopefully it just keeps continuing.”

Greg Engle
About Greg Engle 7421 Articles
Greg is a published award winning sportswriter who spent 23 years combined active and active reserve military service, much of that in and around the Special Operations community. Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.