MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- A.J. Allmendinger left Martinsville Speedway Sunday evening still with no idea what he'll be doing next season.

But he made another strong statement that he ought to be somewhere in Sprint Cup racing in 2009 by nearly matching the best finish this season by the Gillett Evernham Motorsports No. 10 Dodge when he finished 15th.

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I don't really have any direction -- I've talked to everybody. I've gotten a lot of great phone calls, and hopefully that will lead to something.

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A.J. ALLMENDINGER

"[Martinsville] wouldn't have been the first track I'd have picked to come to with a new team, but I'm looking forward to Atlanta and Texas, because I've been pretty good there -- so we'll see what happens," Allmendinger said. "Overall, [Sunday] was a good, solid day. I think if we could have got that [free pass] at the end when Reed [Sorenson] spun -- I wasn't trying to race the leaders and I was running right with them."

The icing on the cake was that the TUMS QuikPak 500 was the first start in the car for Allmendinger, who's been Sprint Cup's version of a pinball the last few weeks. Allmendinger's been hired to drive the car in the last five races this season before GEM brings on current Ganassi Racing driver Sorenson.

"The chemistry on the team is good and Gillett Evernham builds great cars," Allmendinger said. "They're a good team, I just think they needed to get steered in the right direction and I'm not saying I'm the guy that's going to be able to do that, but hopefully I can give them a good direction. To get a top-15 ... that's good."

It's perfect for Allmendinger, who's seriously ride-shopping.

"I don't really have any direction -- I've talked to everybody," Allmendinger said. "The way I look at it, it's been such a struggle and to come to a team that actually wants you and takes a look at my talent and thinks I might be able to help them go in the right direction just gives me a lot of confidence and I can go out there and more than anything, just relax and have fun.

"If you go out there and make a good impression on these guys, and Michael Waltrip Racing -- who knows? I've gotten a lot of great phone calls, and hopefully that leads to something."

The last few weeks, Allmendinger's proven he's got some fire in him. Four races ago at Kansas, in what ended up being his last race for Red Bull Racing, he scored his first career top-10 finish. (Continued)