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Anthony James Allmendinger (born December 16, 1981, in Los Gatos, California), nicknamed The Dinger, is an American racecar driver. He is best known for his accomplishments in the Champ Car World Series, Allmendinger currently drives the #43 Best Buy Ford Fusion for Richard Petty Motorsports in the Sprint Cup Series. He is married to Canadian model Lynne Kushnirenko.
[edit] Racing career[edit] Early careerHe started his career in karts. He won two International Karting Federation Grand National championships.[1] Allmendinger won the Barber Dodge Pro Series championship in 2002, and the Champ Car Atlantic Championship in 2003 with Carl Russo's RuSport team. [edit] Champ CarIn 2004, Allmendinger and RuSport entered the Champ Car World Series, with Michel Jourdain Jr. joining Allmendinger. He scored a run of 6 top-6 finishes towards the end of the season and won the Roshfrans Rookie-of-the-Year award ahead of Justin Wilson. Wilson joined the team for 2005, and both drivers have been in regular contention for podium finishes. On June 9, 2006, RuSport announced that Allmendinger would be replaced by 2002 CART champion Cristiano da Matta. 5 days later, Forsythe Championship Racing announced Allmendinger as their new driver, replacing Mario Dominguez. In the interim, he became engaged to Lynne Kushnirenko, a Canadian model and chiropractor. In his first race with Forsythe, Allmendinger won the Grand Prix of Portland. Allmendinger became the first American to win a Champ Car World Series event since Ryan Hunter-Reay won at The Milwaukee Mile in 2004. This began a three-race winning streak that included wins at the Grand Prix of Cleveland and the Grand Prix of Toronto. This victory moved Allmendinger into second place in the CCWS championship standings, behind leader Sebastian Bourdais. He chalked up his fourth and fifth wins of the season at Denver and Road America. He left Champ Car to accept a lucrative offer from the NASCAR operation Team Red Bull.[2]
[edit] NASCARAllmendinger made his NASCAR debut in the Craftsman Truck Series driving for Bill Davis Racing at New Hampshire International Speedway on September 16, 2006 in the #24 Toyota Tundra[3][4]. He crashed his primary truck in qualifying but started the race 32nd in a backup truck from teammate Bill Lester and finished on the lead lap in 13th. He also competed at Talladega Superspeedway in October with a finish of 5th. In his 3rd career truck series start, he qualified in 2nd place at Atlanta and led five laps before he wrecked and finished 34th. Allmendinger attempted his first NASCAR Nextel Cup Series event at Atlanta in October 2006 driving the #84 Red Bull entry, however, due to qualifying being rained out, a lack of owner's points prevented Allmendinger from making the race. He also attempted to make the race at Texas Motor Speedway, failing to qualify again, however. He was still named driver of the #84 full-time in 2007. Allmendinger failed to qualify for the 2007 Daytona 500 after a crash in the first Gatorade Duel race. He also failed to qualify for the next four races before finishing 40th his first Nextel Cup start at the Food City 500 at Bristol. As the season progressed, Allmendinger made a handful of races, predominantly in the "Car of Tomorrow". To assist him in the transition to stock cars, he participated in selected Craftsman Truck Series races for Toyota for the Darrell Waltrip Motorsports organization and the #42 Memorex/Chip Ganassi Dodge in the Busch Series.  Allmendinger again failed to qualify for the 2008 Daytona 500. After three failures to qualify in 2 attempts (qualifying for the second race of the season, Fontana, was rained out and set by 2007 owner's points), he was replaced by veteran driver Mike Skinner on a temporary basis. Allmendinger returned to the Cup series at Talladega. On May 17, he won the Sprint Showdown at Lowe's Motor Speedway during NASCAR's annual All-Star weekend. The win qualified Allmendinger for the Sprint All-Star Race later that evening, where he finished 17th. Due to Allmendinger's 11th place finish at Watkins Glen, for the first time in his career, he had a guaranteed starting spot for the next race. He had his best career finish at the time at Kansas Speedway coming in 9th, but was released from the team two days later. He was replaced for the rest of the season by Scott Speed and Skinner. Allmendinger made a one-race deal with Michael Waltrip Racing and a deal to finish the 2008 season with Gillett Evernham Motorsports, scoring an average finish of 15.4 in the #10 car. During the offseason it was rumored that due to the merger of Petty Enterprises, GEM had released Elliott Sadler and placed Allmendinger in the #19 for 2009. However, Sadler was prepared to file suit against both the team and Allmendinger for a breach of contract (Sadler was signed on until 2010). In early January, it was announced that Gillett Evernham Motorsports had merged with Petty, that Sadler would return to the #19, and Allmendinger was to drive the #44 (formerly the #10) part time pending sponsorship.[5] Allmendinger's team ended the 2008 season 36th in owner's points, meaning it did not have exemptions for the first five races of 2009. The retro-styled Valvoline 44 raced its way in to the Daytona 500, and third in his Daytona 500 debut, also his personal best, and is the best Daytona 500 debut except for Lee Petty in the 1959 Daytona 500 and Scott Wimmer in the 2004 Daytona 500. Allmendinger was one of two go-or-go-home drivers (the other being Tony Stewart) to successfully attempt the first five races of the 2009 season. He and his team had various sponsors for the season, including Dodge, Hunts Brothers Pizza, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Harrah's, Charter Communications, Best Buy, Stanley Tools, Valvoline, Berlin City Auto Group, Auto Value/Bumper to Bumper, and Super 8 Motel. For the final 3 races of the season, Allmendinger drove a Ford for Richard Petty Motorsports, with sponsorship from Ford Drive One. [edit] DUI ArrestAt 1:27 am on October 29, 2009, Allmendinger was arrested for drunk driving by Mooresville, North Carolina police. He registered a .08 blood alcohol level according to a police report. NASCAR placed him on probation for the rest of the 2009 season.[6] [edit] References
[edit] External links
[edit] Motorsports career results[edit] American Open-Wheel(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest race lap) [edit] Champ Car
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