Allmendinger regrets DUI mistake

The 27-year-old Richard Petty Motorsports driver was pulled over in the early hours of Thursday morning in North Carolina and was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol.

NASCAR placed him on probation and he accepted full responsibility for what he called an "error in judgement". He was also placed on probation by his team and fined $10,000, which will be donated to charity.

Allmendinger will contest this weekend's Sprint Cup race at Talladega after passing a breath test ahead of Friday's practice sessions.

The former Champ Car race winner says he hopes the incident does not have a detrimental affect on his NASCAR career, which has improved this year with three top-10 finishes.

"Obviously it was my fault," Allmendinger told reporters at Talladega on Friday. "It was a bad decision and I wish I could take it back. But that's life, you can't.

"All I can do is learn from it and be a lot better person from it, which I will be, and hopefully educate other people that you don't have to have a ton of drinks to be drunk."

When asked with his charge would affect his career, Allmendinger said: "Hopefully it doesn't. Hopefully I can go out there and show people that I can learn from it. People do get second chances.

"The biggest thing for me is trying to educate people and build from my mistakes. It's not the first mistake I've ever made, but it is the biggest mistake I've made to this magnitude."

Allmendinger had explained earlier, on Thursday: "I went out to dinner and I had a couple of drinks. I honestly felt fine but I obviously should have erred more on the side of caution, particularly given what I do for a living.

"It was a bad judgment call and I apologise for that to my fans, sponsors, team and NASCAR."

Richard Petty Motorsports officials have not hinted at any further action being taken against Allmendinger, who is expected to complete the remainder of the season with the team.