Allmendinger has been suspended temporarily by NASCAR for failing a random drug test

"speedy" recovery eh?

 

Strikes me odd as well, the whole scenario.

Before, Penske couldn't drop AJA fast enough
and, of course, he had Hornish waiting in the
wings.

Not unlike Ohio State running Tressell out on
a rail when they had Meyer on the line.

Now, Penske and AJA are buddy-buddy again
and he's welcomed back into the fold as if nothing
happened.

Never any politics in NASCAR, uh huh...

BHW

 

Shell...you forget that Shell has a big say in who is in their car.

 

True dat.

Imagine when Bobby Rahal's CART team was
sponsored by Shell, they passed over Tom Kristensen
for Kenny Brack because he had "Indy 500 winner"
on his CV!

BHW

 

Up one day...down the next...up again. Repeat cycle.

 

oops!

 

At least...

Soon after Rahal signed Brack, I ran across Rahal at
a vintage/historic event at Daytonner. To that point,
I was only a voice on the phone and a name on Emails,
etc. so I caught him by surprise browsing books in the
vendor area.

Once I reminded him of the head to head match up
record of Kristensen vs. Brack in F3000, he sheepishly
said "Tom is a fine young man, he's going to have a
great career" blah-blah-blah (SIC). Little did he, and
many others, know then...

It's amazing how sponsors factor in to driver hirings.
Knowing Shell's fascination for "Indy 500 winner" on
a driver's CV seems important to them but would they
go so far as to ruin the reputation of AJA to achieve this
in NASCAR?

Interesting topic.

BHW

 

How does the hiring of Logano play into the conspiracy?

Doesn't make sense that he would look for a way to ditch AJ because he has Hornish waiting in the wings and then replace Hornish with Logano.

Every driver knows his job is in jeopardy if his performance doesn't meet the expectations placed on him. Everyone knew AJ's ride was in jeopardy going back to last season and it would not be a surprise to anyone if Penske made a change. It was inevitable. There are several ways to let a driver go and fabricating a drug scandal is the least likely and absurd to think that would be the path taken considering those involved.

AJ made a simple but very costly mistake. He is not in the same league as someone like Jermey Mayfield who clearly has a serious problem. AJ has fulfilled his obligations to NASCAR and has the right to return to racing.We can only guess how Penske feels about AJ as a person but I'd say he never hated him for what happened and is happy AJ is back on track again. There is no flip flop of feelings. They just had to endure the process and the hardship it created.

There is a big difference between business and politics in auto racing. NASCAR is pretty much all business and very little politics especially compared to other racing series.

 

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I'm serious

To clarify, I feel politics in racing is something like what Enzo did to have the last race of the season cancelled so Ferrari could win the championship. Business is something like Shell saying they would no longer sponsor #22 if AJ is the driver so Penske makes a business decision to change drivers to please the sponsors.

If we can agree that is the difference between business and politics I'd be happy to hear of some past examples of politics in NASCAR.