A.J. Allmendinger lost his ride with Team Red Bull’s #84 Toyota. It was announced that Allmendinger would not return to that ride for the ‘09 season. Popular speculation is that Scott Speed will be named to take the seat.
”AJ is a talented driver and we really enjoyed working with him,” said RBRT Vice President and General Manager Jay Frye. “He’s come a long way in just two years and we wish him nothing but the best.”
Mike Skinner will test the #84 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, a sign that A.J. may not be with the team for the remainder of the ‘08 season. Allmendinger is listed as the driver for the #84 at Kansas Speedway this weekend. The #84 Red Bull Team currently is 34th in the owner points. There is a possibility that Mike Skinner and Scott Speed will split the remainder of the ‘08 schedule to preserve Speed’s eligibility for the Rookie of the Year award in ‘09.
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Speaking of testing at Lowe’s Motor Speedway; Jeremy Mayfield got the call from Chip Ganassi to test the #41 Target Dodge instead of the current driver, Reed Sorenson. Grumpy wonders if Sorenson will be out of that ride before year’s end to make way for Mayfield. Sorenson had previously announced that he was leaving the Ganassi/Sabates #41 at the end of ‘08. He has signed to take the seat of the #10 Gillette-Evernham Dodge beginning in ‘09. Sorenson said he expects to remain in the #41 for the rest of the season. Ya think?
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Looks like Petty Enterprises will have past champion, Terry Labonte drive the #45 Dodge at Talladega. Terry has given the #45 its best finish in ‘08 at the July Daytona race where he come home 16th. The #45 ride share program has been almost week to week. Kyle Petty may have just lost interest in running a full schedule. Kyle Petty is scheduled to drive at Kansas, but Chad McCumbee will test the #45 at Lowe’s. I’m guessing that McCumbee will get to run the #45 at Lowe’s. What Petty should do going forward to ‘09 is put McCumbee in a full time ride. Maybe get the #44 back from MWR. Then let Kyle run the #45 on a limited schedule in ‘09 to suit his needs.
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Kyle Bush tumbled to 12th in the Chase, 210 points behind Carl Edwards. Who would have thunk that would happen in just 2 races? Many of the talking heads on TV are saying he is toast for the championship. I wish I could be that optimistic. It is certainly a long shot. The JGR #18 team has produced some amazing results to date. Others will need to have a run of bad luck too in order to give him a chance. There are 8 races left. A big wreck at Talladega or an early DNF anywhere else for some of the others might bring the #18 boys right back in it. We will see how things look after Talladega.







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