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MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Finishing second doesn’t usually touch off celebrations, but there was rightful cause for joy Sunday for AJ Allmendinger at Martinsville Speedway.
 
Recording a hard-fought second-place finish in Sunday’s STP 500 meant media obligations for Allmendinger after matching his best-ever oval-track effort in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The obligations were gleefully accepted as the 34-year-old driver hopped on crew chief Randall Burnett’s shoulders for a piggyback ride for part of the walk to the media center.
 
“It’s big. It’s big to keep stepping up the last few weeks,” Allmendinger said on pit road after the first short-track event of the season. “We’ve been getting better, and to have such a great run here; we had such a great weekend. Hopefully, we’ll just kind of continue to keep getting bigger and bigger and getting better.”
 
Sunday’s result behind race winner Kyle Busch equaled the runner-up finish that Allmendinger scored at the .526-mile track in the spring of 2012, when he drove for Team Penske. Now with JTG-Daugherty Racing, Allmendinger posted his most recent showing on the strength of some nifty moves after a pair of late-race restarts and the benefits of changes within the No. 47 Chevrolet organization this offseason.
 
Allmendinger was in the bottom half of the running order’s top 10 for much of the 500-lap distance, but capitalized on Martinsville’s rock’em-sock’em brand of racing during two restarts in the final 35 laps to launch into the top five. Though the bunched-up starts allowed him to pick off heavyweight contenders Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski and Matt Kenseth down the stretch, he said his car was capable of making greater performance gains during longer green-flag spans.
 
“With 35 to go, it doesn’t matter,” Allmendinger said of his all-out charge to the checkered flag. “You’ve got to do what you have to do. We had such a good long-run car. I was hoping we would stay green the last 120 laps, I thought we might really have a shot at ’em, but Randall Burnett and all the guys, pit crew, I can’t thank them enough. They really stepped it up the last two weeks to give us a shot to win that race.
 
“Yeah, I had to get aggressive and I thought, heck, with 12, 11 (laps) to go, we might have a new clock in the shop, but came up a little bit close. It’s pretty cool to be racing Kyle Busch for the win here, though.”
 
The recent uptick traces a path back to Auto Club Speedway, where the No. 47 bunch registered an eighth-place finish two weeks ago to close out the circuit’s West Coast swing. But the modest streak of two top-10 finishes has roots in the personnel swaps the organization made before the season’s start.
 
Team owners Tad and Jodi Geschickter brought in Burnett as a first-year crew chief after a long stint as an engineer with Chip Ganassi Racing, but also added experienced crew chief Ernie Cope as the team’s director of competition. Brian Burns, the team’s crew chief last year, joined Tony Palmer on the JTG-Daugherty engineering staff, roles where Allmendinger says they have thrived.
 
Though Burnett is only six events into his new position calling the shots on race days, Allmendinger said there’s already a significant comfort level.
 
“He’s great on the box,” Allmendinger said. “He calms me, which shockingly I don’t know if you guys know that, I probably need that sometimes. It doesn’t seem like he’s only done this for six races. They’ve brought a lot, but it’s not just about those guys. Brian Burns and Tony Palmer, they stepped back into new roles and instead of feeling like they were downsized or demoted they’ve stepped up and embraced it.
 
“The whole team here at the race track, at the shop, they’ve all stepped up. Pit crews the last two weeks have really stepped up, and there’s a good vibe around the team. It’s fun to be at the race shop. It’s fun to be at the race track with the guys.  Everybody seems a little bit more energetic.”
 
Said Burnett: “We worked hard as a bunch all winter long. AJ obviously gets around here phenomenally. He’s definitely the key to that. We worked hard on our car, built a car just for here and put a lot of effort into it. The guys at the shop built a great car and our partners, everybody that’s on board with this deal, everybody helps us out and gives us support to do it.”
 
Even though the remnants of March Madness with its early round college basketball underdogs still persist, Allmendinger hopes to grow out of comparisons to a Cinderella role. Sunday’s result — plus an alliance with Richard Childress Racing and the benefit of having one of the best-sponsored teams in NASCAR’s premier series — certainly helps the cause, potentially increasing the likelihood of more piggyback rides to the media center.
 
“It’s not about being a small team, it’s about just getting better as a group,” Allmendinger said. “We know the odds we’re up against. If you look at all the (sponsorship) stickers on this race car, Tad and Jodi Geschickter, they’re giving us the opportunity to go out there and compete at the highest level and it’s what it’s all about.”