{"id":20906,"date":"2018-08-03T22:15:52","date_gmt":"2018-08-04T03:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=20906"},"modified":"2018-08-04T14:41:28","modified_gmt":"2018-08-04T19:41:28","slug":"sonoma-error-motivates-allmendinger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/08\/03\/sonoma-error-motivates-allmendinger\/","title":{"rendered":"Sonoma error motivates Allmendinger"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

There are certainly worse things than being the subject of high expectations and A.J. Allmendinger would heartily agree as much. He shows up at the historic Watkins Glen road course this week \u2013 any week really – as a trophy favorite for Sunday\u2019s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series GoBowling at the Glen (3 p.m., NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He won the race in 2014 for an automatic berth in the NASCAR Cup Playoffs and the former IndyCar driver is justifiably a race favorite at any of the Cup series road course venues. This weekend, in particular, Allmendinger is rather motivated as a rare driving error eliminated him from contention at the series\u2019 first road course, Sonoma Raceway, in June.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, the road course races, I really try to be a perfectionist,\u2019\u2019 Allmindinger shared of the Sonoma missed shift that blew his engine and relegated him to a 38th<\/sup> <\/span>place finish \u2013 the worst of his Cup career on a road course.<\/p>\n

A.J. Allmindinger – <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cLike I said, it\u2019s not going to bother me here, but I am who I am,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cIt\u2019s still in the back of my mind. It still just annoys me. That\u2019s it. I was disappointed for the race team and that I let them down. We didn\u2019t get a good finish. I don\u2019t think we were going to win that race. I don\u2019t think it cost us a Playoff spot there, but I thought we were going to at least have a top three or four finish. It just annoys me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Putting that disappointment aside is certainly a little easier whenever Allmendinger, 36, arrives in upstate New York. The rowdy and loyal fans at Watkins Glen obviously adore him \u2013 applause and autograph seekers meet him wherever he goes at the venue. Even his pet, a cat named \u201cMr. Tickles\u201d is a celebrity \u2013 boasting nearly 4,000 followers of his own on Twitter.<\/p>\n

In return, Allmendinger has usually rewarded his road course \u201croadies\u201d with lots to cheer about.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s completed every lap of all nine Cup races he\u2019s run here \u2013 a remarkable statistic at a road course where the bumping and banging is more reminiscent of a stock car short track. He has six top-10 finishes highlighted by that 2014 victory. Four times he\u2019s started from the first two rows on the grid and he answered his win with the pole position in 2015.<\/p>\n

Allmendinger has two top-10 finishes in the three races at The Glen since his win, including a ninth place last year.<\/p>\n

A victory on Sunday would vault Allmendinger into the 2018 Playoffs and cause a major shift in the standings with five races remaining (counting this week) to set the 16-driver Cup Playoff field. Allmendinger is currently ranked 23rd<\/sup> <\/span>with three top-10 finishes \u2013 earning a season best third place at Daytona in July.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, I can just do my best,\u2019\u2019 Allmendinger said Friday morning. \u201cI\u2019ve come here and put a lot of pressure on myself. We all know what the ultimate goal is when we show up here. I think over the past couple of years it\u2019s gotten a little bit more difficult. I think the field is spread out more. \u201c<\/p>\n

Allmendinger, who drivers the No. 47 Chevrolet for JTG Daugherty Racing, says this season in particular, the Cup drivers have raised the road course game. All three drivers atop the standings \u2013 Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. \u2013 have won at Watkins Glen previously. And Truex, who won at Sonoma in June, is the defending race winner here.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, we\u2019ve seen the three fastest guys are usually the three fastest guys every weekend,\u2019\u2019 Allmendinger said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what track we go to, unfortunately they\u2019re good everywhere. I think there\u2019s more of a difference I can make here as a driver, but I don\u2019t see why it\u2019s not going to be those three again that are going to be the fastest cars. As a whole, in the series, we\u2019ve got to catch up to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I just come here and do my best and try to get everything I can out of it. And whatever that holds, I think sometimes people look at it like if we don\u2019t win, it\u2019s a full disappointment of the weekend, but we come here and we run Top 5 all weekend and you get a Top 5 finish, that\u2019s still tough to do and that\u2019s still a good day.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, if there\u2019s a chance to win, we\u2019ll take the chance. And if not, we\u2019ll just get the best that we can and for me, just get everything I can out of the weekend. And if I do that, I can be satisfied with it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service There are certainly worse things than being the subject of high expectations and A.J. Allmendinger would heartily agree as much. He shows up at the historic Watkins Glen road course this week \u2013 any week really – as a trophy favorite for Sunday\u2019s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series GoBowling at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":20908,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[637,16],"class_list":["post-20906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-a-j-allmendinger","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/309936.jpg?fit=386%2C134&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-5rc","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20906"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20934,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20906\/revisions\/20934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}