Allmendinger a Part-Timer in 2009?
A.J. Allmendinger, recently aced out of his Red Bull ride by Scott Speed (presumably), has landed at Michael Waltrip Racing.
Dinger has been handed the keys to the #00 for this weekends event at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
Sitting at 36th in owners points Waltrip placed veteran Kenny Wallace in the seat at Talladega (replacing rookie Michael McDowell) and he turned in a very respectable 12th-place finish in the Champion Mortgage Double Zero.
Ironically enough “36″ seems to be Dinger’s number, he currently sits in the #36 position in driver’s points earned while in the Red Bull ride and now moves into the Double Zero with the task being lifting it out of the owners points position.
Michael McDowell drove the #00 for MWR for most of the season, but was pulled from the car after he failed to qualify at Kansas. Waltrip said he’s got to try other drivers in an effort to get the car back inside the top 35.
“The decision for us to continue to make changes is about our organization,” Waltrip said. “We’re still closely evaluating the remaining Cup races. We’re moving in the direction of having multiple drivers based on their experiences at particular tracks.”
One wonders if this will be an experiment that carries over to 2009?
If A.J. could somehow coerce, cajole or air kiss a high bucks sponsor into joining him at MWR I suspect it will be, if not it’s anyone’s guess where A.J. will be in 2009.
UPDATE: In other driver news, Kevin Harvick has released Jack Sprague KHI NCTS ride citing a lack of performance and the #2 team “was not up to either Jack or KHI’s standards.”
This is just a Michael Waltrip Effort to get the 00 in to the top 35, AJ is very good at this track as he won the all star opener. This does not mean he will be in a Waltrip ride in 2009, my guessis that Allmendinger will sign with Chip Ganassi for 09 in the Target Sponsored Car, he is a very good driver and has the talent to drive for whatever ride he is given, I expect to see how a Montoya-allmendinger deal will work in ganassi…and if the 40(clauson/mayfield) will be a good choise…
Luis - “he is a very good driver and has the talent to drive for whatever ride he is given,”
Agreed he has talent, but talent can’t and never has made up for poor equipment with any consistency.
As bad as MWR has been Toyota will eventually see that ship righted, that’s far from a possibility with Dodge and the Ganassi organization who have been one of the poorest run teams in the sport over the last 5 years or so.
“As bad as MWR has been Toyota will eventually see that ship righted, that’s far from a possibility with Dodge and the Ganassi organization who have been one of the poorest run teams in the sport over the last 5 years or so.”
The fact that the organizations have had bad results in the past does not mean they wont succeed, Im confident that ganassi and Waltrip will find their ways to the top somehow, not the HMS level but, enough to win races or even enter the chase.
Back to open wheel?
Luis, there’s one single chance Ganassi will come close to joining the ranks of the Chasers, a switch away from Dodge, assuming he’s not forced to change due to Dodge pulling out of NASCAR.
Yes Peter, that’s Chip’s best move shut’r down and shift wasted resources from NASCAR to Indy and their sport car operation.
i dont now, i actually think that ganassi is going to be good in NASCAR, look at the last races, Montoya has been racing neet and talladega was what a race, I agree when you say that Dodge is not the best, but ganassi can work things out somehow or another…give them time they´ll find the correct path…
Look at a possible ganassi team in 09
40- Jeremy Mayfield Part time with Bryan Clauson
41- A.j Allmendinger
42- Juan Pablo Montoya
They can get good results, let see what can happen before the Season finalizes, I still believe CHIP has something to prove in NASCAR