Allgaier, who drives the No. 12 Verizon car for Penske Racing, was brought in to help install some of the final seats in phase one of the Speedway’s grandstand renovations. After bolting down seat 12 in the Gadsden Grandstands, Allgaier autographed the seat.
“This place has so much history,” Allgaier said. “That is one of the big things that I have always really respected about this sport. To be able to come out and help install the last couple of seats especially with the No. 12 seat up there. Just to be apart of what they are doing here at the Speedway means a lot to me. Hopefully the fans see it the same way. I hope it means a lot to them what the speedway is trying to accomplish.”
Renovations at TSS are currently ahead of schedule, which pleases Talladega Superspeedway President Rick Humphrey.
“Our grandstand project we began immediately after the AMP Energy 500 last fall,” Humphrey said. “We are actually ahead of schedule in completing phase one of the project, which actually began on the Turn 4 end and worked its way to the tri-oval. We are installing some of the final seats this week.”
Allgaier won the ARCA race at Talladega in 2008. He said that he enjoys racing at Talladega SuperSpeedway.
“This is such a fun speedway to run on,” Allgaier said. “Especially since they have repaved the place. It is so smooth and we get to be four or five wide. I think there were a couple of times last year that we were trying to make it five wide and that is something that is pretty unbelievable.
“When you talk about how wide the cars are and how wide the racetrack is. It is a lot of fun. My best memory here is being able to come here in the ARCA series and we actually won the race in ‘08. I tell you its nothing like getting in victory lane here in Talladega.”
Dodge introduced the Challenger as its car of the future last fall. The new Challenger is being introduced this season in four races and fully integrated next season. Allgaier likes these cars look like the cars the fans can get off the car dealership.
“The new Challengers are actually what we are going to run,” Allgaier said. “Dodge revealed the new Challengers here at Talladega last year. We got to do a little testing here last year. It is just a fun car; it is something different it looks like the streetcar. It looks like what you can go buy at the dealerships and I think that is what we had kind of gotten away from a little bit in our sport.
“Now we are getting that back. It used to be win on Sunday buy on Monday. Now it’s like win on Saturday buy on Monday, because they look so much like the real cars.”
For Allgaier the “Big One” is what makes racing at Talladega Superspeedway interesting.
“Unfortunately, I have been in some wrecks in Talladega,” Allgaier said. ”This was actually the first Superspeedway race ever. I came here I think in 2006; we had a great day racing and we got caught in the big one in the ARCA series.
“Then last year we got caught up in one in the Nationwide car. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the finish we wanted to and we had a torn up racecar out of it. That’s the one thing that’s really fun about this place. When you are up, you have great days. When it’s not a good day, you are definitely down. It makes for interesting times.”
Last year Allgaier was named NASCAR Nationwide Rookie of the year. He collected three top five finishes and 12 top 10 finishes in 35 races. In his second season Allgaier looks to pick up some more hardware.
“We had a great season last year,” Allgaier said. “It is one of those things you always hope that you can win Rookie of the Year whenever you are running the first year. We had some great rookies. Brendan Gaughan and I had a battle going on all the way to the last race. I think that’s what made it so much more fun. The fact that you are racing with someone week in and week out you’ve got to beat them.
“Obviously you want to win races as much as you can, especially with the points. When you are racing someone like that it seems like you are always trading back and forth. He would get one ahead of us, then we would get one ahead of them, so it was nice to come away with it.
“Now I’m a little spoiled. In 2008 we won the ARCA championship, last year we won the Rookie of the Year. This year I guess the only thing left for us to win is another championship.
“We are going to have to really go hard. It’s nice getting all that hardware at the end of the year at the banquet, so we really have to work hard at it.”
Post a Comment
