Allmendinger extends with JTG Daugherty Racing

AJ Allmendinger

AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 DILLON’S/SCOTT PRODUCTS CHEVROLET SS met with media and discussed his contract extension with JTG Daugherty Racing, sponsor commitments, his participation with the team, and more.

TALK ABOUT KROGER’S LONG-TERM COMMITMENT AND WHAT THAT MEANS TO YOU AND THE TEAM AND THE PROGRAM YOU’RE DEVELOPING

“It’s through a lot of hard work by (team owner) Tad (Geschickter). I really haven’t done anything. Tad Geschickter is really amazing when it comes to picking up sponsors and making sure each sponsors works with each other well. Obviously a lot of our sponsors connect with each other.

"To have Kroger, a Fortune 500 company, that’s been a part of this race team at the Daytona 500 for a few years now; and to have them come on board and really step-up the program just shows the confidence they have in us and the confidence they have in Tad, and the fact that they like me, which is shocking, and I was pretty excited about that.

“I think sometimes there is so much talk about whether there are a couple of sponsors leaving or whatever is going on, to have a company like Kroger step-up and make a long-term commitment for the next couple of years, and it could really build into something way bigger than that. So, I know when it comes to the rest of the sponsors that we have and other companies that have seen what this program is right now and possibly can be, this deal could be bigger than we even know right now."

I HEARD THAT YOU HAVE SOME NEWS WITHIN THE COMPANY AND THAT YOU’LL BE WITH JTD DAUGHERTY RACING FOR A WHILE

“Yeah, it goes along with this Kroger deal and a lot of the companies that we have (like) Scott Products, over the past year that signed an extension; Bush’s Beans has been around the team forever. We’ve got so many new sponsors. Hungry Jack has really stepped-up from last year and even going into this year and companies like Better Than Bouillon and Kingsford and Clorox, which has been around a long time. The great thing is, we’ve got a lot of sponsors. The tough thing is trying to remember them all. My suit weighs like 12 pounds now. It’s a good problem to have. But, with that said, those sponsors are here long-term.

Tad and I did a new deal through 2020, which to me, was just a no-brainer. And Tad and Jodi have been such a big influence in my life outside the race car. Inside the race car, it’s great to have a job and be here for a long time. But what they mean to me outside the race car as family is people that I consider some of my best friends. It’s just kind of a renewed love of the sport that they’ve given me; just a different outlook. It was a no-brainer. Tad handed me the contract and I flipped to the back page and signed and said, ‘Here you go.’ I did not, unfortunately, look at it that closely because in the contract it was written I have to call him, ‘The Man’ (laughter), and he gets unlimited Mulligans in golf. The unlimited Mulligans, I’m not too worried about, I can still beat him with those; but calling him ‘The Man’ constantly is a little over the top, but hey, whatever works. But, it’s just great. The atmosphere of this race team and all the great energy that we have running well and all these companies stepping up, it’s a big deal."

WHAT DO YOU THINK IT IS THAT SPONSORS SEE IN YOU AND THE ORGANIZATION THAT MAKES THEM WANT TO BE WITH YOU?

“I don’t know. That would probably be a better question for them. Anybody that knows me sees the passion that I have to go out there and always try to be better. That’s something that pushes me and pushes my life every day. This race team, I really take everything to heart, because I know how hard Tad and Jodi work and what they give us, and the effort they give to this race team. And I think sponsors see that too. All you’ve got to do is really to meet Tad for the first time and see what kind of personality he his and it draws you to him. It’s one of those things that you don’t know he’s the team owner.

“Heck, I love telling the story about the first time I met him when we first started talking about doing races in 2013. For the first 10 minutes of the conversation, I thought he was the truck driver. He was carrying like 12 suit bags and driving the golf cart back to the bus and about 10 minutes into the conversation I was like, oh man. This might actually be the team owner. I kept waiting for him to show up. That’s just the type of personality he is. He’s just such a great person and sponsors love it. It’s so easy to talk to him and be around him and want to do things greater than you’ve ever done for him because he works so hard.

“What he does to correlate all the sponsors together and with the Kroger deal; not just to get Kroger and say hey we’ve got this big company and we’re just going to take that and that’s going to be the main focus; you know, he worked hard to make sure all the sponsors that we have were good with the deal and it benefitted not just Kroger or the No. 47 team, but it benefitted every sponsors. And what he does to keep a spreadsheet and to keep just all the numbers to show these sponsors, hey, what we do every weekend and what we do in the stores near the race tracks and what we do at the race track, it benefits you. You can’t hide that. It shows that in the numbers. The companies see that and it’s crazy for them to not want to because it just benefits everybody. So, that to me is what they see. And hopefully when they’re around me, they see I just want to be at my best at all times. And I put that pressure on my shoulders, good or back. The ups and downs, you know, sometimes it’s a happy feeling and sometimes it’s a hard feeling and you see it, but I want to make sure that all these people that are associated and all these companies and especially for Tad and Jodi, I’m at my best and hopefully that’s why they like being around me."

BEFORE YOU REALIZED ALL THE WORK THAT WAS GOING ON BEHIND THE SCENES, DID YOU FEEL LIKE YOU WERE TAKING THAT FOR GRANTED, OR DIDN'T PAY ATTENTION TO IT?

“Tad just gave me a different outlook on what this team does. When I first signed the first contract, he gave me the option. ‘What do you want to be? Do you want to be the driver and we just focus on you leading the team and you just driving the race car? Or, do you want to see the other side of it. Do you want to see the marketing side of it? Do you want to see the stuff that goes on behind the scene? I’ll let you be part of every decision if you want to be.’ That to me has been really cool because I had never seen that before. But with a team like ours, this is what Tad and Jodi do. It’s not like they have other businesses and they’re talking care of those and the race team is just this small thing that they’ve got going. This is their life. They’ve been doing it for over 20 years and that’s why I take it to heart so much because I see the grind. I will say there is nobody that works harder than Tad to make sure that we keep building this team. It’s unbelievable. He’s on a plane every day going somewhere. One day he’s in California visiting Clorox and Kingsford. The next day he’s going to Tennessee for Bush’s Bean. He’s doing this deal or that; going back and forth. The hard work is contagious because I see it and I want to work harder for him because of it."

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU TO HAVE THE PIECE OF MIND TO BE SIGNED ALL THE WAY THROUGH 2020?


“It’s huge. This sport is not easy especially this day and age. It is so competitive and it’s so brutal when it comes to trying to find sponsors and keep sponsors and having a job. This is a home and I know it’s the right place for me. To have a long term deal is great, but I kind of look at it as something that I’m going to be here hopefully until my career is over – whenever that is. It’s the right place for me on and off the racetrack. It’s a big deal. In a way it makes things a little bit easier because I know it is a long-term deal, but at the same point I put a lot more pressure on myself because I want to keep trying to get better and make us better. It’s one of those things it’s a long process I know it is. We know how this sport works I want it to be right now and for me even last year people would make comments to me or fans or whoever. ‘Hopefully you can get back to a big team and show the things that you are capable of showing’. It just made me mad. No, I want this to be the team. I don’t want this to be a stepping stone for a big team. I’ve been there. It’s great. I mean there are a lot of benefits to being on a team like Penske and all the resources, but there are a lot of benefits to being this underdog team that keeps building and showing great things. When you have companies step up to show that a small team can keep getting big sponsors. We can go out there and try to take it to them. That is what I like. I feel like this is the right place, the right role for me. It’s big for a lot of reasons."

WHEN YOU HEARD THAT THIS RACE WAS GOING TO BE THE SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS 400 WHAT IS YOUR REACTION TO THAT?

“I thought, wow, that SpongeBob trophy is going to look really cool next to the giant Cheese-It that I have at home from Watkins Glen. I have a big crystal vase trophy from Champ Car and then the Cheese-It. The Rolex watch is actually in my drawer somewhere. I only wear that when I’m trying to get sponsors to show I’m really good. I just take it off, see now, I can prove it, I am good. See it says it right here on this watch. But I think the SpongeBob would go great with the Cheese-It."

DO YOU HAVE ANY KIDS? 
“No. I’m not grown-up enough for that. They’d just take up my golf time if I do that."

WHAT HAS THE TEAM SHOWN YOU IN THE SHOP THAT HAS GIVEN YOU THE CONFIDENCE THAT THIS TEAM CAN EVOLVE AND BECOME THE TEAM TO BE WHAT YOU WANT IT TO BE? 
“At the end of 2013 where the team was, they were truly on their own. They were running Toyota’s but through Triad motors. Tad right away asked me the question he said ‘what do you think the next step is?’ I said ‘well it’s tough to go beat these big teams if you are at least not getting some help from them.’ So I thought doing an alliance was the right place to go. Richard Childress Racing has been so open with everything they have given us. It’s a continual just hard work at the shop to try to keep making our racecars better the RCR alliance and the ECR motors that is such a huge help. I think that program, as a whole keeps getting better. It’s shown by the way teams like the No. 78 (Martin Truex, Jr.) are running and the No. 31 (Ryan Newman) and the No. 27 (Paul Menard) right now. We could easily be eighth or ninth in points if we wouldn’t have had a couple of DNF’s when the motors let go.

“Every day they try to find ways to get better. Sometimes it’s frustrating. Weekends like this we show up and we have a new body on the car and we think we are going to be fast. We unload and we just haven’t hit it yet this weekend. Hopefully the race is different, but they are not stagnate. They don’t just sit there and say ‘all right this is what we’ve got for the next three months and we just have to survive with it. Tad that is why he keeps trying to find more sponsorship, more money he wants to keep putting it. Truly him and Jodi it is kind of mind-blowing to see. They take no money out of the team. What they make goes back into the team. Right there that is just heart and passion. For me, as I said, it’s simple to know that these people really want to go out there and win. To be able to give them their first win and my first win last year at Watkins Glen is a memory I will never forget. It’s cool to be able to walk in the shop and see that banner hanging down. And hopefully we can just keep trying to get more."