Allmendinger will start from the rear on Sunday after engine change
AJ Allmendinger will start Sunday's CampingWorld.com 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race from the back of the field after his JTG Daugherty Racing Team had to change engines in his No. 47 Chevrolet Saturday morning.
Allmendinger comes into tomorrow's race at Phoenix International Raceway a surprising fifth in points.
In the opening round of Saturday's two practices, Allmendinger reported that his engine temperature spiked. Allmendinger then pulled in and the team made the change, putting in a fresh ECR Engines powerplant.
"I didn't like the temperature and that was it," said Allmendinger, who had been slated to start on the outside of row 11 after qualifying 22nd on Friday.
His team then confirmed the problem.
"They saw something they didn't like," Allmendinger said. "What has been awesome about this whole ECR package is this is the first time I've has something like this happen in over a year. The guys are working hard. They will fix it. More importantly we have just got to make the Kingsford Chevy better. We are not very good right now."
Crew chief Brian Burns said the team decided to play it safe for Sunday's race.
"We didn't qualify as well as we wanted to anyway, so we decided to take the opportunity to change (the engine) now and eliminate any doubts," said Burns. "We have a good race car and ECR Engines have been awesome all year. We are just taking some precautionary measures to make sure we are good to go to the end."
