Raybestos Rookie AJ Allmendinger scored a career-best 18th-place finish last weekend at California Speedway, his best in 10 career NEXTEL Cup Series races. Allmendinger discussed his good run last weekend following NEXTEL Cup Series practice today at Richmond.

AJ ALLMENDINGER, No. 84 RED BULL TOYOTA: COMMENT ON YOUR PERFORMANCE LAST WEEKEND AT CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY AND WHAT IT MEANS TO THE TEAM. “I think for me it gives me confidence that I can run up front and do it all day and be able to do it clean and stay out of trouble. For the team it just gives them confidence that we’ve deserved to have some decent finishes this year and just haven’t gotten them for whatever reason, whether it’s mistakes or wrecks or bad luck. It’s good that you’re finally able to complete a race and that one is hard to do. That’s a long race around that place.”

YOU’VE MADE ALL THE SHORT TRACK RACES THIS YEAR. HOW MUCH SHORT TRACK EXPERIENCE DO YOU HAVE? “That’s zero in my background. Never seen a short track until I came to NASCAR, except on TV. I don’t know if it’s the speed or what it is about these places. I’m just more comfortable on ‘em. Making a race at Fontana surprised me more than making a race at Bristol or here. And part of it is the little testing that NASCAR gives us to test at the racetracks. That’s the places that we’ve done it. At Bristol we had a full test before the first one, full test here at Richmond so that’s part of it as well.”

DO YOU THINK THAT THE SHORT TRACKS PUT MORE THINGS IN THE DRIVER AND CREW CHIEFS HANDS TO FIND THE RIGHT SETUP? “It’s tough to get a good car setup anywhere, but it does allow the driver to kind of get after it a little bit more and put on his shoulders a little bit more to say ‘Okay, if the car is not perfect maybe I can still get it in.’ A place like Michigan or Fontana or something like that, if the car is not good there’s not much you can do and you just hang on. Like Michigan, Tony Stewart qualified 42nd. You never see that. That’s a bad car and has nothing to do with him. Stuff like that is tough to overcome.”

COMMENT ON RACING THE DRIVERS INVOLVED IN THE CHASE FOR THE NASCAR NEXTEL CUP. “Of course. You don’t want to be the guy that causes problems. But it still comes down to if we’re running well and we’ve got a chance to get a good finish and stuff is happening, I’m not just going to pull over either. You’ve got to race ‘em smart but it ain’t going to be any different. It’s not like I go out there to wreck ‘em in the first place or get in their way or whatever. At Fontana last weekend we were quick and I was able to run up front and I raced ‘em hard but I raced ‘em clean. It’s the same thing as the rest of the year has been.”

WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS THIS WEEKEND? “We should be able to make the race. We struggled in practice, actually. We weren’t as quick as I expected us to be. We kind of rate in that lower tier, sixth, seventh right there in the go or go homers. I’ve got a bad draw. I’m a bit surprised but in all purposes we should make the race, and same thing, run top-25 and you can go away happy. Top-20, fantastic, anything better than that is even better.”

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO ACCOMPLISH IN THE FINAL RACES OF THE SEASON? “It’s the same thing: we’d still love to make every race but if we can consistently run top-25, top-20, now that we know we can do it now that we proved ourselves that we’ve had a fast enough car but we can also finish it off, that’s kind of what we want to do. That’d be our goal. It’s step by step. Our first goal is to move in the top-43 so if it rain we don’t get screwed again and just keep moving up in points, whether that puts us 42nd, 40th, 38th, whatever. As long as we keep moving up and gaining on people, that’s a good year.”

HAS IT BEEN DIFFICULT TO KEEP YOUR CONFIDENCE UP THIS SEASON? “Oh of course. It’s never easy. Before Bristol I think the management tested us and said it’s time to figure it out. We did it but it shows that running Busch races and running Truck races, running something during the weekend of a Cup race, that helps a Raybestos Rookie. That’s a big surprise, isn’t it?”