AJ Allmendinger won’t run Sprint Unlimited
The Sprint Unlimited is going to be missing a Chase driver.
JTG-Daugherty won’t field a car for AJ Allmendinger in the season-opening exhibition race on February 14. The reason? The dreaded s-word.
“It was nowhere on our radar until they changed the rules on it,’’ JTG-Daugherty co-owner Tad Geschickter told NBC Sports. “If we had won a pole during the season and knew we were in it, I’m sure we would have been well prepared for it. We appreciate being grandfathered in, but, obviously, have to manage our resources to deliver the best year-end points finish we can for our sponsors.’’
It’s hard to blame the team’s reasoning at all. There’s a high chance (relative to other races) of a crash in the Daytona race, and is it worth risking an unsponsored car for a non-points race? If winning the race got the team into the 2015 Chase, the decision is much harder to make. But with no tangible benefit (quick, name the winner of last year’s event), sitting it out is a prudent choice.
Allmendinger made the Chase in 2014 by winning at Watkins Glen. NASCAR changed the eligibility for the Unlimited in the middle of December. Instead of pole winners and previous Unlimited winners, the field now includes Chase drivers from the year before, pole winners who didn’t make the Chase and drivers who have won the Daytona 500 pole but didn’t qualify via the first two sets of criteria.
According to NASCAR, a minimum of 25 drivers will race in the event and without Brian Vickers, who will return in March after a heart procedure, the field was already down to 24. Without Allmendinger and Brian Scott, who won the pole at Talladega in May but didn’t run the full season (and won’t run the Unlimited, per NBC), the field is down to 22.
The drivers lined up to fill the field back up to 25 are Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard and Casey Mears. Drivers highest in 2014 points who didn’t meet the eligibility requirements above are next in line to make the field full.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
