AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 SCOTTS/KINGSFORD/BUSH’S BAKED BEANS CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Media Day at Daytona International Speedway and discussed his win at Watkins Glen, starting the season and other topics. Full transcript:
DO YOU REFLECT BACK ON YOUR WIN LAST YEAR AT WATKINS GLEN? “You can at least say, for that one moment, I am a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series winner. You want more, but for that one moment, it has finally happened.”
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED RECENTLY? IS ANYTHING DIFFERENT? “It is the same answer until we get on the race track. By this point, I think we are all ready to go. The guys at the shop, they’ve gone insane, they want to get out here. For us, we want to get in the race car and go do this. For me, we just talk about it so much, it just keeps building up anxiety, the nervousness, the excitement – all the stuff that comes with the start of a season. You just want to get going.”
WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING WITH THE NO TESTING? “My off season is almost always the same thing. Fortunately, I get to do the Rolex (24 Hour) every year, so most of my January is always preparing for that. We did get to go text at Las Vegas. We did the Goodyear tire test. I’ve sat around a little bit, but at the same point, the last 10 years have been the same thing really. Get ready at the Rolex, and since ’07 you start SpeedWeeks. The only difference now is you don’t have the Daytona testing once you are here. I keep busy enough.”
HOW DO YOU SAVE FUEL TO GET THE MAXIMUM YOU CAN OUT OF IT? “Unfortunately, I’m not the best at gas mileage. There are little things that you can do. It depends on the race track. But everything really comes down to easy on the brakes, not sloshing that fuel back and forth. Rolling of the throttle easy so you don’t just dump fuel in and out of the fuel injection. It is little nuances that you can do. But it is always that key thing about how well you do it against the speeds that you run. Fuel mileage races for drivers are not fun. But, at the same point, there is definitely an art form to how you do it.
“Then you have a crew chief in your ear telling you that you are going to be good to lap whatever. And in your mind you ask are you sure about that. I’m not really sure you are perfect on your numbers. That is what makes these Sprint Cup races so hard, and racing in general because there are so many different pieces to the puzzle of trying to win a race. That is why when you do win a race, the level of enjoyment and satisfaction that you have with your race team because it’s taken so much to get there. It has taken that crew chief and engineer to figure the fuel mileage to the perfect place of how you are going ot get across the line. There are a lot of things about it that the general person doesn’t really look in to. That is what makes our sport so unique.”
DID YOU HAVE A FUEL MILEAGE ISSUE AT THE GLEN? “We were close. All those yellows at the end really didn’t make it that close. But, if it had stayed green, it was going to be dead-on. He told me it was going to be close and I was going to run out at turn seven. I was throttling back, but at the same point, it is that art form, because I am trying to throttle back as much as I can but I had Marcos Ambrose coming. There are little things you are trying to do just to save every drop of fuel.”
WHAT ARE SOME OF THOSE THINGS YOU DO? “I can’t give that all away (LAUGHS). It is like what I said you lift early and try to break easy.”
HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO HAVE FUN WHEN YOU WORK? “The people that Tad Geschickter and Brad Daugherty have surrounded me with, that makes it a lot of fun. These people that you are at a race track with every weekend are your family. You have to get along with them. If you don’t, it is 38 weekends of being miserable if you don’t like the people you are around. We know we have to work hard at our race team, and work harder than everybody. But at the same point, we have to have fun and I do my best to show my guys my appreciation for what they do every weekend. I am fortunate. We drivers get buses in the infield. We get to bring our friends and family if we want. It is the crew guys that are sharing rooms with each other; get to the track at 6:00 a.m. and leave 8:00 at night every night. So I try to show them appreciation and have fun with them when we can, is really important in this sport.”
ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT QUALIFYING HERE? No, I have no worries about it here. We’ll just see how it plays out. Last year we went into it with plans, as I qualified fourth. And then the last race at Talladega, just figured I would wing it and we qualified third. It is one of those things, if the plan works out, then great. Then you go to Duals where the biggest thing is not to put yourself in a bad position where you wreck your car in qualifying, and we know in this qualifying format there is a possibility there. When it comes to being worried about it, not at all.”
ARE YOU BUMMED YOU AREN’T DOING THE SPRINT UNLIMITED? PRACTICE FOR THE DUALS IS DURING THE DAY AND THEN THE DUALS ARE RUNNING AT NIGHT SO ARE YOU MISSING SOMETHING? “Of course I would like to racing but, when I look at if I am really affected by the decision, no – not at all. The way the race track being repaved, there is little stuff you learn, but it’s not like when the track was old and worn out. If the track was still like that, we would have to race this race. It would be fun to go out there and race it, but it’s not that big of a deal.”
WHAT IS THE MOST STRESSFUL OF THE DAYTONA 500? “I would say lap one through 200. That’s pretty much it. Laps 1 through 200 are pretty stressful.”
ARE YOU CONFIDENT YOU CAN WIN THE DAYTONA 500? “I will put it this way, I’m coming into this season probably more pumped up about our season, about our potential. I feel like we are way more ahead than we were at this point last year. Last year we barely had our Daytona 500 cars ready. At this point guys were busting their butts at the shop to get Phoenix ready and Las Vegas ready. We are way more ahead. A year with Richard Childress and Chevy has been a big deal. I think where we are at with our sponsors, their excitement level about being a part of our race team and NASCAR is probably higher than I have ever seen with this team. Daytona is unique. I think we are going to have fast race cars. Motors are going to be fast. You just hope you get to the end and give yourself a shot to win. That is all you can do. It is one race of 36, and obviously it is the most important and it is the most unique. It is one out of 36, but it is one out of won. The rest of the season starts in Atlanta. We’ll just go get what we can. Hopefully we will have a shot to win.”