Redemption for Allmendinger

AJ Allmendinger exorcised some demons in Sunday's Grand Prix of Denver, finishing a strong third after crashing out of three successive races in Toronto, Edmonton and San Jose

Alex Sabine Aug 15, 2005, 7:56 AM

This time the 23-year-old sophomore barely put a wheel wrong and admitted he was relieved to see the chequered flag.

"First of all I was just glad to finish," he said.

"When I was by myself I was kind of thinking about (the string of DNFs), but when Mario (Dominguez) was all over me at the end it took my mind off it!"

Allmendinger made a great start and held second place ahead of eventual winner Sebastien Bourdais for the first 18 laps.

But heavy rear tyre wear left him with lurid oversteer at the end of each stint, and on the penultimate lap he fell prey to a charging Dominguez.

"We've struggled all weekend trying to get a handle on the car," affirmed Allmendinger. "It was pretty good for the first ten laps of the stints, but then it would really go off.

"The car hasn't been great all weekend and so I was just looking for a top-five finish really. So I'm pretty pleased to be back on track and bring home a podium finish for (sponsor) Western Union and RuSPORT in our home town."