Penske Racing hasn ‘t been in touch with NASCAR about A.J. Allmendinger since his temporary suspension, but many drivers are trying to get in touch with the Sprint Cup team. NASCAR hasn ‘t informed the team of the substance that caused Allmendinger’s failed test and many are wondering what the long-term plans are for the Shell car. Penske Racing president Tim Cindric said the phone began ringing not long after Allmendinger was yanked from the #22 Dodge hours before the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway. Sam Hornish Jr. substituted for Allmendinger at Daytona and this weekend at New Hampshire, but many were inquiring about Penske’s long-term plans for the Shell-sponsored car.
‘Without a doubt, starting Saturday afternoon in Daytona, like (team owner) Roger (Penske) said, all of a sudden you ‘re the prettiest girl in town, as far as other drivers are concerned,’ Cindric said Saturday in victory lane at New Hampshire after Brad Keselowski’s Nationwide win. ‘We ‘ve just said, ‘We have a solution. We ‘re going to give Sam an opportunity. ‘ Luckily we have the depth. We ‘re going to play this thing week by week.’
Penske also was in attendance for Saturday’s race but didn ‘t speak to media after joining in Keselowski’s celebration. Team officials said he had to leave quickly after the win because of a prior commitment. Cindric said the Penske brass hadn ‘t met with NASCAR execs this weekend. ‘The way we see it, it’s between NASCAR and A.J. at this point in time,’ Cindric said. ‘Obviously he’s our driver, but it’s not something that we control.’
Cindric said Shell had been ‘amazingly patient’ while awaiting the fate of Allmendinger who seemed to be headed for a contract extension after signing a one-year deal to replace Kurt Busch. ‘They ‘ve stood behind A.J.,’ Cindric said. ‘We had those two top-10s and had a lot of momentum. We felt we might be at a turning point then. We thought we would go forward. We had to sit out and take a timeout.’ Cindric said the team and sponsor had mulled scenarios depending on the results of the ‘B’ sample test. ‘In our job we have to talk about all kinds of different scenarios,’ he said. ‘We haven ‘t made any decisions. We ‘ve just tried to role play a bit with all the different outcomes. We also have to see how (Sunday) goes as well. You take it a step at a time because you have two or three things happening in parallel.(in part from the USA Today)(7-15-2012)
