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Sonoma is one of Allmendinger's 2 best chances to make the Chase again
AJ Allmendinger grabbed a berth in NASCAR's Chase in 2014 by beating Marcos Ambrose to the finish line at Watkins Glen. Sunday's race at Sonoma is the first of the Sprint Cup Series' two annual road course races. And with Allmendinger's track record at road courses, it's not a stretch to say that it's one of his two best shots to get into the Chase.
Allmendinger is 22nd in the points standings through the season's first 15 races. He was in the top five through the first four, but was 25th after Bristol, the eighth race of the season.
"I think we’ve improved," Allmendinger said Friday. "And everybody has to improve more again. That’s kind of the nature with a smaller team is you’re always trying to play catch-up a little bit. We started the year really well. I think we were fifth in points after five races. We had a couple of DNF’s and we blew some motors a couple of weeks in a row. We crashed at Bristol running inside the Top 10."
And from there, I wouldn’t say panic set it, but we started trying different things. Okay, where have we lost it? In a way, maybe we hadn’t lost it. We just had bad results. And then we kind of got off track and we came full circle. So, in the end, we know where we have to improve. We have the steps in place and the ideas in place, but it’s not an overnight process, either."
Last season, Allmendinger was 21st in the standings through 15 races. Much like last year, he's in a win-and-in scenario to get into the Chase. He's likely not going to have enough points to make it without a win.
Allmendinger finished 37th at Sonoma last year but has finished in the top 13 in four of his six races at the track. He said his team is bringing the Watkins Glen-winning car to Sonoma. And if he does win Sunday, he'll be the ninth-different winner in nine races.
“Well, with having that off-week, [the team has] really been able to focus on this car and improve the body a little bit and get a little bit lighter and all the stuff we need to do," Allmendinger said. "But you know, really, it’s not carryover from Watkins Glen. We were fast here last year. In the end, I don’t know if we had a race-winning set-up, but there was stuff that I learned and that we learned as a team, to try to improve it.
“The set-up we’re at least we’re going to start with, is pretty close. I don’t know how different the package is, motor-wise and aero-wise, it will be around here, but we’re starting with a similar package we had last year when we had a lot of speed. So, I think it’s just more confidence from our team and myself, knowing that if we do the right things, especially at a place like this, we can go win the race."
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
