MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
PRE-SEASON MEDIA AVAILABILITY
CHARLOTTE MEDIA TOUR
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JANUARY 24, 2017
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Charlotte Media tour and discussed the prospects of a road-course race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, adjusting to having a teammate in 2017 and other motorsports items that are of a personal interest. Full transcript:
WHAT WERE YOUR IMPRESSIONS OF USING THE STOCK CAR ON THE ROAD COURSE AT CHARLOTTE. WHAT WAS GOOD AND WHAT WAS A CONCERN?
“I had heard a rumor there was a stock car test going on around Charlotte! I was golfing that day. Shot an 86. I four-putted the first green. It was terrible! I’ll just say that we were out there collecting data. I had a lot of fun. It would be something I would enjoy. It was better than my golf game, let’s put it that way. I had 43 putts that round. Do you know how bad that is? It’s horrible! But I didn’t throw the putter so I’m growing in maturity as a person.”
YOU HAVE A TEAMMATE FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2012 IN CHRIS BUESCHER. HOW HAVE YOU MATURED AND CHANGED AS A DRIVER IN THOSE LAST FOUR YEARS THAT WILL HELP YOU BE A BETTER TEAMMATE THAN YOU WERE PREVIOUSLY?
“If you ask my team owner, I haven’t matured yet so that was the whole non-putter throw from a few minutes ago. It’s going to be great. Chris Buescher… obviously with the talent he has, winning the Xfinity Championship (in 2015) and getting his first career win last year, there’s a lot I can learn from him. I really think it shows the growth of our race team and especially with Tad and Jodi (Geschickter). A big reason of having to go to a second car is that in general we had too many sponsors. Kroger taking over my car full-time this year was something we looked at as an organization and how we started running at the end of last year. Tad and Jodi, it was their decision but it was the right time to go to a second car. It shows the effort they put into their race team. There isn’t a lot of teams out there saying they have to expand because there are too many sponsors in the organization. It was a late start, for sure. It was kind of late November when that decision was made. Just the transformation I’ve seen from late November to now in the shop and all the growth… we’ve added over 30 people. I’d be a little worried about it if we didn’t have Ernie Cope running the team and being the Competition Director, because what he’s going through on a daily basis to make sure the cars are being built right and all that is pretty spectacular. If we didn’t have him, I think we’d be lost. Ernie’s doing a great job and the shop is coming together. It’s fun just getting to know Chris. For me, having the RCR alliance is one thing and it’s been nice. But when you have a second car inside your organization that is running the exact same stuff, I can bounce ideas off Chris and vice versa. It will make us better in the long run.”
DO YOU ANTICIPATE ANY MORE TESTING AT CHARLOTTE ON THE ROAD COURSE, AND WOULD A ROAD COURSE RACE THERE BE SUCCESSFUL?
“I like to golf, and I’m going to play some more rounds up there just in case they want to collect more data! Here’s the deal… I don’t know what’s going to happen. I thought it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it. You can bring something new to the schedule and something new if it was done. I’m all for it. I’m probably biased toward that. It’s kind of like the new format. Change can be good and it can be a little scary. We have to see how it plays out. But could it be successful? I think it would be a fantastic race and something the fans could truly enjoy.”
INAUDIBLE.
“I don’t know. I don’t make those decisions. Let’s make the whole series road course races. Or at Dover we could run the banking into the dirt!”
TOWARD THE END OF THE YEAR, THERE WAS DEFINITE A PERFORMANCE UPTICK. WHAT CHANGED AND WHAT DID YOU WORK ON?
“During the summer we kind of lost our way with setups a little bit. We struggled to get back. We got into a rhythm where we were running and it was OK but we needed to be better. We started trying some things and lost our way. In those summer months for a smaller team and being the one-car team we were, you start getting off a little bit in those summer months and it’s hard to get back on track. As we got to the end of the year, we started to build the race cars kind how back to how we had them. Charlotte was the first new car we had since the beginning of the season and that really showed. More than anything, Randall Burnett (crew chief) and I just working together for the first time was something that as we learned each other, we got better. So I think that’s going to be better going into this year and having that second year. Bringing in Chris and Trent Owens (Buescher’s crew chief) over, and he has a lot of knowledge so I think all that is going to be a benefit for us.”
YOU HAVE SAID YOU DRIVERS GET ASKED THE SAME QUESTION ALL THE TIME. WHICH ONE DO YOU GET MOST AND DO YOU ANSWER IT THE SAME WAY?
“What do you have to do if you use the restroom in the race car. The one I always laugh at is when you get asked before the race if you’re excited or what it would mean to win? Well… nothing. That’s what we’re out here for. But in general, it’s a long season and we all work together as a group and try to figure out how to grow and keep more fans interested. We all get a little testy, right? That’s it.”
WE WON’T SEE YOU AT THE ROLEX 24, RIGHT? IS IT BECAUSE OF THE CHANGES MICHAEL SHANK MADE?
“Most of it is because he got that Honda deal, which I thought was awesome for him for all the years he’s been working kind of by himself. John Pew was a huge deal in that and Mark Patterson before that. For Mike to get a factory deal was pretty special. Last year by the end of the year I was a little bit beaten up. Part of doing the Rolex each year is doing it with Michael Shank for the last 10 years. He’s been like a big brother to me. He’s one of my best friends. I didn’t really look hard for anything else. It would have been strange being there and not running with him. Believe me, I’ll miss it until about four in the morning when I’m sleeping because that knock on the door at four to wake up and get in the race car is pretty tough. But I’ll be watching it on TV and will be there in spirit.”