NASCAR: Making a giant leap forward

NASCAR success, A.J. Allmendinger says, will come in baby steps. But he sure took a giant leap forward in Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Dover (Del.) International Speedway.

And as the 2010 season draws to a close, Allmendinger has never been in a better position to pick up his first career victory.

“We’ve got fast race cars and we’re getting there. They saw us lead,” Allmendinger said of his Dover race. “They saw that we had the speed there. They saw (us) just out there flying. 

“It was a good day, but it could have been a great day.”

He’s right. The 28-year-old native of Los Gatos, Calif., led 143 of the first 171 laps at Dover.

That’s 100 more laps than Allmendinger had led previously in his entire Cup career.

He actually ended up 10th, but that was primarily because midway through the race Allmendinger had to pit under green for a cut tyre and spent a good bulk of the remainder of the race working his way back through the field.

“We’re getting really good at fighting back and making good finishes out of a problem that happens,” he said. “I would like to have a consistent race one of these days.”

Over the last three races, Allmendinger hasn’t started worse than sixth and finished worse than 12th — easily the best three-race stretch of his 108-race career.

“It was fun to lead,” he said. “No wonder Jimmie (Johnson) is smiling so much. It’s actually a lot of fun to lead.”

Allmendinger will become the top driver at Richard Petty Motorsports next season for what will likely become a two-car team with Marcos Ambrose.

While many in Allmendinger’s position might already be looking forward to next season, he believes there remains a lot of work — and opportunities — yet this year.

“I love racing, so I always hate when the season ends. I’m not looking at that,” he said. “We’ve got eight more races to go, so we’ve got a lot of work to do.

“I still feel like we can get to the top 16 or 17 in points and if we keep running like this, maybe we can sneak a win in there. We still have two months before I’ve got to worry about the season ending.”

Entering Sunday’s Price Chopper 400 at Kansas Speedway, Allmendinger already has as many top-10 finishes (six) as he did all of last season, his previous best. He is 21st in points, 167 outside the top 15 with eight races remaining.

To take the next step toward a win, Allmendinger said his No. 43 Ford team needs develop consistency, which includes running well each week and also running consistently during each race.

“I think we’re getting there. To say, can we go out and win one? We’ve got to keep getting better. We’ve got to be consistent inside the top 10,” he said.

“Of course, winning is the ultimate goal and that’s what we want to do, but we have to (take) baby steps here. We have to be one of those cars that are inside the top 10 every weekend and then we’ll get there.” For three straight weeks now, Allmendinger has been one of those cars.