Next Comes …The Challenger!
Penske Racing’s Justin Allgaier will debut a Dodge Challenger in the NASCAR Nationwide Series at Daytona International Speedway in July. The occasion is likely the first time a pony car will have raced in NASCAR since the 1960s when Curtis Turner drove a Smokey Yunick Camaro in Sprint Cup races (then called Grand Nationals). The No. 12 Verizon Dodge Challenger will also race at Michigan, Charlotte and Richmond this summer. Mopar Magazine talked with Allgaier about his new ride in early April as he was preparing for an upcoming test session in the Dodge Challenger at Daytona.
MM: Why are you bringing out the Dodge Challenger?
JA: NASCAR wanted to come up with something they felt would be appealing to the fans and to the drivers alike, so they came up with the Challenger—and I think that’s going to be a car that we’re all very proud of. I feel that, collectively, Dodge and Penske Racing have done a great job of coming up with something that not only looks good, but should be fast as well. So we’re all super pumped-up about it and feel like we’ve got the opportunity to capitalize on starting over with this new car and really having a lot of fun with it.
MM: Have you had time to dial this car in? Is it that much different from the regular Dodge Nationwide car?
JA: It is different. It’s something that we definitely have to work on. We have an open test coming up here in a couple of weeks at Daytona to try and shake the thing out a little bit—to see what it’s going to be like in a draft, for example. We’ll just have to wait and see where it stands and hopefully it’s going to be a lot of fun and we’ll have an even better race car than in the past.
MM: Where else have you tested?
JA: The only other place we’ve tested was Walt Disney World Speedway. We went there shortly after our Talladega test and got to run a few laps to see what the thing drove like. We really didn’t get to work on it a whole lot, but we just wanted to see what the car drove like and what we needed to work on to make it better.
MM: You’re driving exceptionally thus far in 2010, capturing numerous top 10 and top five finishes, along with a victory, and you’re fourth in the Nationwide standings. What’s different this year?
JA: I think our program has just gone above and beyond and has really improved, but adding a second car for Brad Keselowski has been really important—and then just the continuity in the program, having the same group of guys we had last year and working that much harder over the winter. The thing most people don’t know is that in the middle of January we thought we were running only five or ten races, so when we got Verizon as a sponsor we now had a full program, and we were a couple of months behind and that really hurt us. You know, when you’re going to do this series and you’re going to keep up with it like we do you’ve got to start the day that Homestead ends [Homestead is the end of the NASCAR season] and work on making the program better still. This year we are on top of the program and I think it shows the amount of effort that we’ve had during the off season and we’re in good shape.
MM: Do you have a personal Chrysler, Jeep®, Dodge or Ram vehicle, or have you raced any kind of Chrysler Group vehicle in the past?
JA: The first vehicle I bought new is a Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8.® I love the SRT8, so I had to buy one of those. Dodge has been a huge part of the racing program, and I have raced against a lot of them and I have been fortunate to win a few races in a Dodge and I think that’s neat. It seems to me that the diehard Mopar® and Dodge fans are very devout. They love what they do and love being a part of that whole group and I think that makes our fans that much better—because they are very passionate about what they do. And they want to see their brand up front and winning, so there is not a better company than I can imagine being with and we want to carry that partnership forward to victory lane many times over the course of the summer.
MM: Are there any plans for moving up to the Cup Series?
JA: At this point, no. I’m not going to say that it’s not a possibility, but we are working very hard to focus on the Nationwide program. We’re going to go out and give it our best and if the opportunity arises we will definitely take it. But we are just focusing on how to make our program better.
MM: Will you run any USAC Sprint or USAC Mopar Midget National cars this year?
JA: Not at the moment. Roger [Penske] is not a huge fan of me going out and getting hurt and I can’t say that I blame him, so he asked me if I would just curb that whole deal. It’s rough, but I’m not complaining.
