With win in hand, Sprint Cup underdog AJ Allmendinger aiming high
Two days before scoring the upset of the Sprint Cup season, AJ Allmendinger unwittingly undermined its impact.
"I am not sure that we are quite in that realm of saying if we make the Chase we can go win the championship," he said.
An inaugural victory in NASCAR's premier series considerably changed that view for the JTG Daugherty Racing driver.
"We've got a shot," Allmendinger said about his championship hopes after winning Sunday's Cheez-It 355 at Watkins Glen International. "When I was saying that on Friday, I didn't want to just say, 'We're happy to be there.' I want to go in there and make some noise."
The win already has had reverberations in setting the field for the Chase for the Sprint Cup entering Sunday's Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
Allmendinger, who is 24th in points, was the 12th race winner of the season under the new structure that ties Chase eligibility to victories. That narrowed the window several winless drivers are trying to squeeze through to secure Chase berths. After the 16-driver grid is populated by winners, the remaining slots are filled by the standings.
If Michigan, Bristol Motor Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway and Richmond International Raceway each yield a repeat winner, that would leave four spots open heading into the Chase opener at Chicagoland Speedway.
Matt Kenseth, ranked third in the standings with 703 points, is virtually a lock to make the field.
But Allmendinger's win tightened the battle for a remaining Chase spot among the drivers ranked ninth through 14th. Twenty-nine points separate Ryan Newman, Kyle Larson, Clint Bowyer, Greg Biffle, Kasey Kahne and Austin Dillon.
As it stands, Kenseth, Newman, Larson and Bowyer are clinging to provisional Chase berths based on points, balancing the risk between gambling on a win and protecting their position in the standings.
"It's definitely an interesting dynamic," 2012 series champion Brad Keselowski said. "Those guys that are fighting for the 15th and 16th spot, it obviously just got a lot harder because they lost a spot to fight for (on) the ladder.
"It's certainly compelling to watch."
In Allmendinger, NASCAR also gained a compelling story line for the Chase. After a breakout 2006 season with five wins in the now-defunct Champ Car World Series, the Los Gatos, Calif., native entered NASCAR's premier series in 2007 with Red Bull Racing and failed to qualify in 19 of 36 races.
Despite improving in '08, he lost his ride with Red Bull and drove for Richard Petty Motorsports for three seasons. That earned him a shot in 2012 with Team Penske, but he made only 17 starts before being fired because of a NASCAR suspension for testing positive for an amphetamine.
He was reinstated over a month later after completing NASCAR's Road to Recovery program, and he returned with Penske last year, winning twice in the Nationwide Series and making six Verizon IndyCar Series starts (placing a season-best seventh in the Indianapolis 500).
But he left Penske's mammoth organization for JTG Daugherty, whose 48 employees field a single car. It took 213 starts to earn his first Cup win.
"I have went through hell in this series, absolute hell," he said.
Team owner Roger Penske, along with three of his racing lieutenants, was among the first to celebrate with Allmendinger in victory lane at Watkins Glen. And the win also touched Keselowski, his former teammate.
"Seeing anyone get their first (win) is incredibly special," Keselowski said. "A.J. (and) some of the adversity he's had to fight through to get there makes it even more special."
Allmendinger will earn even more plaudits if he can make a run through the Chase. A new elimination format that reduces the field and resets the standings every third race (until there are four drivers left in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway) offers hope.
"The way the format is laid out, you don't have to be amazing for 10 races, you just have to be good enough each three sets of races," he said. "The next thing you know you get to Homestead, anything can happen."
Follow Ryan on Twitter @nateryan