A.J. Allmendinger Shifts Gears From Champ Car To NASCAR

Allmendinger Leaving Champ Car For NASCAR Nextel Cup Series

Champ Car World Series driver A.J. Allmendinger has signed a multi-year deal with Team Red Bull to drive a Toyota in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series, joining a “growing parade of open-wheel racers who are either moving to NASCAR or giving it serious thought,” according to Jim Peltz of the L.A. TIMES. Allmendinger is scheduled to attempt to qualify for this Sunday’s Bass Pro Shops 500 in Atlanta. He will drive a Dodge for that race, since Toyota will make its Nextel Cup debut next season. Bill Elliott was scheduled to drive Sunday’s race for Red Bull, but Elliott has “agreed to let Allmendinger take the wheel” (L.A. TIMES, 10/25). In San Jose, Darryl Matsuda writes losing Allmendinger, one of the few American drivers in the series, “will hurt Champ Car.” Champ Car Series co-Owner Jerry Forsythe is “said to have offered Allmendinger a multiyear contract extension with a sizable raise and options,” but Allmendinger received “considerably more guaranteed money” to go to Team Red Bull. Allmendinger has had a “personal sponsorship deal with Red Bull throughout his Champ Car career” (MERCURY NEWS, 10/25).

Red Bull Toyota Will Begin Running On Nextel Cup Circuit In ‘07

PICK-UP LINE: In N.Y., Dave Caldwell writes, “Toyota does not need much help selling the passenger version of the Camry, the No. 1-selling passenger car in the United States. But Toyota would like to sell more pickup trucks, and the company thinks that NASCAR fans are an ideal target.” Toyota Motor Sales VP/Marketing Jim Farley noted, “We’re not racing Camrys to sell Camrys.” Caldwell adds the ’08 Toyota Tundra will be unveiled in February at “about the time of the Daytona 500,” and Toyota will have “already started a marketing blitz aimed at NASCAR fans” by then. Toyota said that it hoped its presence in Nextel Cup racing could also “generate more teamwork among the estimated 400,000 Americans who have jobs with Toyota or one of its suppliers.” Farley: “We need something like NASCAR to connect with each other as a family” (N.Y. TIMES, 10/25).