Allmendinger has career race with future in limbo (cont'd)

"My arms are wore out," Allmendinger said through a grin after changing clothes and exiting his hauler. "I didn't think it would be that tough because mile-and-a-halves aren't that tough -- but that was slick and with, like, 25 to go my arms were like Jell-O. I'm definitely going to sleep well tonight."

But heavy arms were nothing compared to the weight of his heart in the stretch run of a season in which the Los Gatos, Calif., native would be a serious candidate for Sprint Cup's "most improved driver."

The former open-wheel standout has been through this before, in 2006 in the Champ Car World Series, where he won five races for Forsythe Racing after being released in mid-season by RuSport, the team for which he won the 2004 rookie of the year title.

But there's one emotionally jarring difference with this one. Allmendinger wants to stay. And his crew chief says that if he was in a position to hire a driver, Allmendinger would be on the top of his list.

"In one way there's a parallel and in another way no," Allmendinger said of the open-wheel switch. "When I kind of got let go from my Champ Car team, I didn't want to be there any more. I wanted to get a new start.

"With [the situation] here, I wanted to stay. I love these guys, they're a great team and they're going to do a lot of great things. So it is what it is. But I've shown before that I can go through some kind of adversity like that, keep fighting and come out on the other side a lot better. And that's what we're going to do."

Crew chief Jimmy Elledge, who split with Ganassi Racing in May and joined Red Bull and Allmendinger in July, said Sunday was a bittersweet day, but exactly what he expected from his 26-year-old driver.

"I think it shows the character of all of our team, and I'm really proud of A.J. for knowing he's not going to be back in that car, and to post your best career finish in it shows that he's not laying down on the job," Elledge said. "I'm just real proud of the whole effort.

"I hate that the timing of the situation ended up working out like it did, because obviously we've performed pretty well and it would be fun to continue to do it. But we'll all move forward and I think that should make a good statement for the people that are looking at him, to show that he's definitely still sitting up in the seat, no matter what."

Elledge readily stepped out of his Red Bull shoes and into the role of a team owner looking at the available crop of drivers.

"There's no doubt, I think he's definitely the top pick right now, for what's out there -- and I think he's a lot better than some [drivers] that are in a lot of these situations," Elledge said. "I think he's got a bright future -- I mean, that's why I went to work there. I've seen a lot of potential in him from when he first started driving. He's going to do well for other people, but I'm glad he's doing a good job for us right now. We'll still be friends and wish him luck and we'll still be his biggest fan and hopefully it'll end up being great for all of us."

What complicates matters even further for Allmendinger is that he doesn't know how many of the seven races remaining this season he'll drive for Red Bull.

It's assumed former Formula One driver Scott Speed will be in the No. 84 Toyota next season, but he's not NASCAR-approved to race at Talladega. The veteran Mike Skinner, who replaced Allmendinger for five races earlier this season in an "evaluation period" for the second-year Cup team, is waiting in the wings if the team decides to make a change.

"I've clawed and scratched too hard in NASCAR to just go out there and lay down, so it was a lot of fun," Allmendinger said. "Hopefully we're back next week. If not, what a sendoff. And if we are [in the car] we'll have some fun again at Talladega."

Allmendinger had said if he was in a position to go to work for his next employer this season, he'd be willing to do that. And in a final statement of character, despite what he'd said about his team, he was only looking up.

"It's not hard [to leave]," Allmendinger said. "It's like I've said, when everybody's been asking me, it could be a lot worse. You could have no ride next year and nobody could give a crap about it and never ask you about it. I've got a lot of support, a lot of great comments and a lot of people have come up to me and they want to talk about it, so things could be a lot worse."

His second career top-10 moved Allmendinger up 11 spots in the unofficial Chased-Out point standings, the tally for non-Chase drivers who've done the best since the Chase started. He's sixth, only five points behind fifth-place Gillett Evernham Motorsports Dodge driver Elliott Sadler.

David Reutimann finished 19th at Kansas in his No. 44 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota, his fifth consecutive top-20 finish, to take the lead by five points over 24th-place Petty Enterprises Dodge driver Bobby Labonte. Previous leader Martin Truex Jr. suffered a transmission failure in his No. 1 DEI Chevrolet and fell to 10th.