A.J. Allmendinger
Roadloans.com 200 Preview
Race: RoadLoans.com 200 on Saturday, September 22, 2007
Track: Dover International Speedway (DIS) (1-mile oval)
Location: Dover, Del.
The No. 42 Memorex Dodge Team
Third Time is the Charm?: A.J. Allmendinger will make his third start in the No. 42 Memorex Dodge for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (CGRFS) this Saturday at Dover International Speedway (DIS), which will mark his third career NASCAR Busch Series (NBS) start, as well. His last NBS outing turned out to be a strong one at Richmond International Raceway (RIR) where he and the No. 42 Memorex team quickly transformed a top-15 start into a top-10 run the majority of the night at the Virginia track. In the closing laps, Allmendinger’s car was spun out which relegated the No. 42 Dodge outside the top 10 but in the remaining 10 laps Allmendinger maneuvered his way back inside the top 15 to score a 14th-place finish.
Chassis: Crew chief Brian Pattie and the No. 42 Memorex team will run chassis #452 this weekend at DIS. The car most recently carried David Stremme and the No. 42 team to a top-10 start and top-15 finish at Bristol Motor Speedway in late August. The car also proved to be the No. 41 CGRFS Busch team’s best chassis last season. With a total of six starts in 2006, the car tallied four top-five finishes and five top-10 finishes. The same chassis played a key part in the team’s high point of 2006 when Reed Sorenson drove the car to two fourth-place finishes back-to-back in July at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway and Gateway International in St. Louis, Mo. Sorenson went on to record a second-place finish in early August at the O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis, Ind. The only time the chassis finished outside the top five was at Richmond International Raceway in May when the team practiced, qualified and raced inside the top 10 all day and night. Unfortunately, a late hit from another car sent the No. 41 CGRFS Dodge slamming into the outside wall and out of the race the remainder of the night (finished 36th).
Standings Update: The No. 42 team’s top-15 finish at RIR advanced the crew four positions forward in the NBS owner standings where the team is now 19th overall with a current tally of 2,792 points, just 117 away from the top 15.
