Sliced Bread And Butter

If Joey Lagano is sliced bread then A J Allmendinger must be butter, because he sure has been smooth.Looking at AJ's short Sprint Cup career he has improved phenomenally. His first year he struggled with not only being a rookie to Sprint Cup, but also driving for newly formed, Team Red Bull. AJ only qualified for 17 of the 36 races in 2007, but in comparison Brian Vickers, Red Bull's other driver only qualified for 23 of the 36 races and he's more of a seasoned veteran. The following year AJ failed to qualify the first three races and was taken out of the car and replaced by veteran Mike Skinner for the next five races. AJ must have been able to learn something from the vet Mike because upon returning to the car, his qualifying woes were no longer ,qualifying for the next 21 races before being let go by Red Bull because it seems Red Bull didn't have the time to develop a driver,but wanted one that would be an instant success (We see how that's working out). After being let go, AJ sat for 1 race, drove for Michael Waltrip Racing for 1 race and, finished off the season in the 10 car for GEM which is now Richard Petty Motorsports. Now only 6 races into the season he's put the 44 car not only into the top 35 in owners points, having to qualify his way into the first 5 races, but is also now in a respectable 15th place in overall points standings.

As it stands right now AJ only has sponsorship up to and including the Coca-Cola 600 and if none is found ,I wouldn't be surprised to see some shakedown-shufflearound moves done at RPM in order to keep AJ in the 44 car for the season.