Allmendinger finding time for NCTS and Cup

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- If A.J. Allmendinger learned anything last year when he scratched the surface in NASCAR, it's that racing in the Craftsman Truck Series is fun.

So in 2007, faced with a daunting inaugural season in Nextel Cup with Team Red Bull's fledgling operation, Allmendinger decided to maximize his fun, along with his seat time.

This weekend at the Truck Series' round of Jackson Hewitt Preseason Thunder at Daytona, on the eve of his first Cup test Monday, Allmendinger previewed what he hopes to be a 12-race program in truck races that are companion events to Cup races.

His Team Red Bull Nextel Cup operation worked out a deal with Michael Waltrip Racing to field the No. 00 Toyota Tundra with Allmendinger in the seat.

Daytona was the first outing for the five-time 2006 Champ Car World Series winner in the truck fielded a year ago by Darrell Waltrip Motorsports for David Reutimann.

"Obviously we need more time than just in the Cup car," Allmendinger said after recording the second-best time in Friday afternoon's drafting session. "We were looking around at some Busch deals, but we never really could find one that was competitive, and with just the few truck races that I did last year, I just loved driving the truck."

Allmendinger did three races last season in Toyotas fielded by Bill Davis Racing. He crashed in qualifying at New Hampshire, but rebounded to finish 13th and on the lead lap. He was fifth at Talladega, and then qualified second at Atlanta before crashing early.

"I had so much fun doing it and there's a lot more opportunity to come over here and find a competitive ride," Allmendinger said of the Truck Series. "Although it's not as close to a Cup car as a Busch car would be -- and I know there are some who argue about that -- but it's a competitive ride."

Allmendinger was seriously in the mix in all four Preseason Thunder sessions in which he tested the team's single truck over two days, only slipping out of the top 10 on Saturday afternoon, when he was 14th, just four-tenths off consistent fast man Travis Kvapil.

Allmendinger was so eager to get seat time, he actually came to Daytona last week and observed Team Red Bull teammate Brian Vickers' test, which was spread across four days when rain wiped out a half-day.

Allmendinger even made two short runs, with Nextel Cup director John Darby's blessing, in Vickers' car on Wednesday afternoon.

"I got seven or eight laps and the car was a lot rougher ride than the truck was," Allmendinger said, laughing. "I think with [the car] being coil-bound and everything like that, it was a rough ride. I couldn't believe how rough the track was, compared to when I drive it in the [Grand-Am Rolex Series] sports car.

"But [the trucks] are fun. You get in the draft and the trucks are moving around and the back end feels light because there's no weight on it -- but they're a fun machine to drive."

The fact that it's a Toyota definitely means a lot to Allmendinger, and he said Team Red Bull and Michael Waltrip Racing getting together was just the latest example of Toyota teams' vaunted spirit of cooperation.

"Yeah, it is," Allmendinger said. "Obviously, I wanted to stick with Toyota as a manufacturer and obviously they dominated the truck season last year, so it's the best one to be with anyway.

"It has a lot to do with running a Toyota in the Cup Series and there's no reason if you can [get a Toyota ride] to go with another manufacturer in another series. That's just the way it worked out and everybody's been cooperative and been great and I'm happy to be here."

But not as happy as he said he'd be starting Monday.

"We want to see where we stand," Allmendinger said of his pending Cup test. "I think Brian and the whole team did a great job [and] they really worked hard on the three days that they were here.

"The beginning was a bit of a struggle, as you would expect, and hopefully that just shows how strong and how hard-working the team and the manufacturer are going to be, because they kept plugging away, and I think by Thursday morning they had made some gains and at least got in the ballpark."

Vickers' Toyota was the slowest of three that tested last week, but he was 20th on the sheet among 28 drivers who tested, and only four-tenths-of-a-second behind fast man Jeff Green.

"Hopefully we can carry that over and put that [setup] directly on my car and continue that pace," Allmendinger said.