Kansas: AJ Allmendinger preview

STATESVILLE, N.C -- Sunday's seventh-place finish at Dover is AJ Allmendinger's best career finish outside a restrictor plate track or road course. It marked his fourth top-10 of the season and the third consecutive race he has raced inside the top-10 for a significant portion of the laps. This weekend, the Richard Petty Motorsports driver races the No. 44 Valvoline Dodge at Kansas Speedway where he finished ninth last year.

DOVER -- "We were pretty happy with the result. I wouldn't say I was surprised. If you go back and look at the last several races we have run really well until something weird happened at the end. (Crew Chief) Mike (Shiplett) and I are getting better each race. When we get to the track on Fridays we think we are a top 10 car and that's been true over the last few races. Sunday at Dover was the first time we've been able to turn a top-10 car into a top -10 finish. But, I think you are going to see more and more of that in the coming races. A run like we had at Dover gets you excited about going to the track. I think we'd race today if NASCAR would let us. It's cool to see the hard work paying off."

KANSAS -- "Kansas has been good to me. We ran pretty well there last year. I'm even more excited this time knowing the kind of cars and crew I have with me now. This is the best team I've raced with and I know we'll have good stuff this weekend. On Sunday I'll have one of the best pit crews in the sport. We probably passed a half dozen cars in the pits at Dover and I have no reason to doubt we can do that again in Kansas."

* Allmendinger will sign autographs at his www.ajallmendinger.com merchandise hauler at 9:45 a.m. at Kansas on Sunday.

* Sunday marks Allmendinger's 73rd start in Sprint Cup racing.

* In just 33 races with the Petty team, Allmendinger has posted four of his best five career finishes.

-credit: rpm