Even though team owner Roger Penske was enjoying a lengthy European vacation – including celebrating wife Kathy’s birthday in romantic Venice – he was never too far away from what his race teams were doing.
Penske kept up with Brad Keselowski’s second-place finish in Thursday’s trucks race at Kentucky Speedway, as well as Keselowski’s Friday night win in the Nationwide Series place there, as well.
And then, following a lengthy flight back to the U.S., Penske was at Kentucky for Sunday’s rain-delayed Sprint Cup race – unfortunately to watch Keselowski get wrecked and finish 33rd.
To add insult to injury, Keselowski dropped out of the top 10, falling four places to 13th in the rankings – his lowest in the standings this season.
On a brighter note, though, Penske’s other Sprint Cup driver, Joey Logano, finished fourth at Kentucky and climbed into 10th place in the standings.
And even though it occurred more than a week earlier, Penske was still beaming at AJ Allmendinger’s first career NASCAR win in the June 22 Nationwide Series race at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis.
Allmendinger lost his ride in one of Penske’s Cup cars nearly halfway through last season after failing a NASCAR drug test. To his credit, Allmendinger went through and successfully completed the sanctioning body’s recovery program and resumed his racing career just over two months later.
Yet, even though he lost his Cup ride with Penske, Allmendinger was brought back into the Penske fold earlier this season, driving in a number of different series including Nationwide and Izod IndyCar Series, including finishing seventh in the Indianapolis 500.
Allmendinger has also competed in seven Sprint Cup races thus far this season with Penske’s blessing: five for team owner James Finch and two others (with three more still to come) for JTG Daugherty Racing. He’s also raced in the Grand Am Series for Michael Shank Racing, with a podium finish in the season-opening race at Daytona.
“I was so pleased to see him in the Winner’s Circle,” Penske told FoxSports.com about Allmendinger’s win at Road America. “It proves to everyone that he can drive a race car and he’s put everything behind him. He’s served his time, so to speak, and proved that even under pressure he was capable of getting the job done.
“This sport will bring you down but it can lift you back up if you let it. AJ has gained a lot of confidence through all of this. I don’t hire guys just to hire them. You want a guy that’s on the climb and he had potential from my perspective . . . he made a mistake and he paid for it.”
Allmendinger is scheduled to compete in another Nationwide race for Penske on Aug. 17 at Mid-Ohio and will also likely race in the IndyCar season finale at Fontana, with an outside chance of maybe a few other races still to be added to his dance card.
