Catchfence

STATESVILLE, N.C.— AJ Allmendinger takes his vote campaign to Richmond International Raceway for Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on the three-quarter mile, D-shaped oval. Last weekend in Talladega, Allmendinger gave away about 250 pizzas to fans while his wife Lynne, and their Labrador Misty, one of the puppies featured in the movie Marley and Me, sported shirts seeking votes to gain entrance in the All-Star race in Charlotte. The top two finishers from the Sprint All-Star Challenge transfer into the All-Star race while the third is voted in by the race fans. The 27-year-old Californian has pledged to “do anything” to earn the fan vote if he doesn’t race his way into the field.

At Richmond, Allmendinger’s Dodge will carry a paint scheme promoting the “King’s Cup Karting for a Cause” race on May 19 in Mooresville, N.C. The event will feature a four-hour endurance go-kart race, along with appearances by ‘The King’ Richard Petty and other Richard Petty Motorsports drivers, entertainment and a silent auction. Money raised goes to the Paralyzed Veterans of America.

ALLMENDINGER QUOTES

RICHMOND-“Richmond is a great track. I think it is fast enough for fans to feel our speed but its small enough where we can beat and bang. We need to get back on track at Richmond and get back to running well. We just got caught up in someone else’s wreck at Talladega. It’s a long season and you know you are going to go through some stuff like this.”

KING’S CUP— “The money goes to help the injured war veterans so there aren’t many better causes than that. I hope we have a lot of people come out and tell these veterans how much we appreciate their sacrifices.”

ALLMENDINGER ON ALL-STAR VOTE —“We can race our way in to the All-Star race if we win at Richmond or Darlington so we haven’t taken our eyes off that while we had some fun giving out the Hunt Brothers Pizzas and the shirts last weekend. We went out in the infield at Talladega and tried to bribe the fans. It was fun. I’ll let you know how it worked when the vote totals come out.”

ADDITIONAL NOTES OF INTEREST

· He will drive chassis 282—the car that finished ninth in Martinsville.

· For more information on the King’s Cup visit www.pva.org/gokart

· www.ajallmendinger.com

· Allmendinger will sign autographs at his merchandise hauler at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday.

· To vote for AJ click here: http://www.nascar.com/ promos/allstar/

· For Allmendinger stats: click here

- Richard Petty Motorsports, Press Release