Allmendinger: 'Racing is some of the best I've seen'

AJ Allmendinger decompressed on the Barber Motorsports Park pit road wall following his physically taxing IZOD IndyCar Series debut, intermittently joined by crew members of the No. 2 IZOD Team Penske car and fifth-place finisher Will Power.

Qualifying 10th, Allmendinger was in the top 10 for much of the 90-lap Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama on the 2.38-mile, 17-turn road course, running as high as fifth on Lap 45. A stall during his third and final (Lap 63) pit stop didn’t aid the cause and he finished 19th.

“The result kind of wasn't what I wanted, but I felt pretty good in the race to have the pace where I did and run inside the top 10 early on,” he said. “It’s just part of the learning curve about going through the race strategy and working with Roger (Penske) for the first time and having him call my race and just kind of everything that goes with that.

“I’m trying to take the result out of it completely. I felt really good about the weekend. All in all, except for the finish itself, I was pretty happy with the weekend.”

The race was among the three the five-time CART race winner has scheduled with Team Penske. The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 19-21 was added last weekend to the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race on May 26.

Allmendinger made three CART starts on the temporary street circuit, with a best finish of eighth on April 10, 2005. The next year, he started the season at Long Beach by qualifying fourth – a 12-race streak in which he qualified in the top five. He won five races, including consecutive events at Portland, Cleveland and Toronto, that season.

“I’m really excited to go to Long Beach,” said Allmendinger, 31, a California native. “That was always one of my favorite races on the Champ Car schedule, and it's a good atmosphere.  I won the Toyota Atlantic race there back in 2003, and felt always pretty quick there in Champ Car.

“I'm looking forward to it, and to be able to go back and kind of get another race under our belts before Indy is going to be important. I think obviously the Penske organization has a great car on the road course and street course tracks especially. Hopefully I can get up to speed pretty quick, not having a lot of track time there. I'll be studying a lot of data, a lot of video.

“I'm still learning (the car). I'm nowhere where I want to be when it comes to being competitive. I want to go out there and contend to win races. It's been tough, and this series, especially in the IZOD IndyCar Series, there are no hacks out there. Everybody in the series is so quick, and it's so competitive. I think the on‑track racing of this series is some of the best I've ever seen, and I've watched open-wheel racing really ever since I was growing up.

“I’m just trying to learn the car and then go out there and compete at a high level. It's been a tough adjustment, but I enjoy the challenge. I'm getting closer but still have a ways to go."

Allmendinger’s results in CART at Long Beach: