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Bob PockrassNASCAR
CONCORD, N.C. — AJ Allmendinger hasn’t had much fun in the past 18 months, so frustration turned into disappointment when JTG Daugherty Racing decided to release him after the 2018 season.
Allmendinger, who won the sole NASCAR Cup Series race in team history when he captured the trophy at Watkins Glen in 2014, will start second Sunday in the race on the new Charlotte Motor Speedway road course.
“I’ve got nothing to lose — I don’t have a job,” Allmendinger said Friday about his race philosophy.
After a 2016 season in which he finished 19th in the standings, Allmendinger was 27th last year and is 24th this year. He averaged a 22nd-place finish in 2017 and is averaging 23rd after 28 races in 2018.
The team announced Tuesday that he wouldn’t return and then Friday that rookie Ryan Preece will replace him.
“Nobody likes losing their ride,” Allmendinger said. “But the more time I sit and think about it and talk with my family, it’s been hard. Literally, for a year and a half, it hasn’t been fun. We’ve struggled. It’s hard on everybody.
“This year, I’ve probably been a different person at the racetrack and at home. Change is scary, and the possibility of not having a paycheck come to you right away is a little bit scary. But change can also be a very good thing, and I think it will be.”
Allmendinger wouldn’t call his performance on Friday as “bittersweet.”
“I’ve been very fortunate in my life — they gave me an opportunity to get back in the sport full time,” said Allmendinger, who lost his ride with Team Penske in 2012 after a suspension for failing a drug test that he said was caused by taking a pill that he didn’t know was Adderall. “Of course, you’d like it to end on a better note.
“We didn’t have the success that we wanted to, but no matter what, there’s a banner that hangs in that shop, it’s the only one that they have that says, ‘NASCAR Cup Series winner,’ and that can never be taken away. We had a lot of great times.”
Allmendinger won five CART Champ Car races in 2006 before transitioning to NASCAR in 2007. He isn’t sure what and where he wants to continue racing.
“I’m just taking some time right now to just figure it all out, figure out what I want to do,” Allmendinger said. “It’s been a tough couple of years. … If there is a plan that God has for me to be in the sport next year, I’ll be here. And if not, I’ll figure something else out.”