AJ Allmendinger and Chris Buescher made it a night to remember for JTG Daugherty Racing in Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
The duo finished in the top-five marking the first time the organization had two drivers take the checkered flag among the first five finishers.
Allmendinger’s third-place run put his string of Daytona top-10 finishes at four – the longest among active drivers.
“I missed about seven wrecks it felt like,” Allmendinger said. “Anytime you can walk out of here with a decent finish and to have a top five especially both cars in the top five, so great for our whole organization. It’s one of those things you would like to go get the win, it was close, but top three it was a good day.”
Buescher was right in the middle of the last lap dash to the checkered flag and was behind eventual race winner Erik Jones, who credited him for giving the push needed to get to Victory Lane.
“We fought hard today and stayed out of trouble and were there at the end with our teammate AJ,” Buescher said. “We got a good run on the outside, we were able to give (Erik) Jones a good shove down the back there and got him clear. We just couldn’t quite clear with him. So, congrats to him on his first win.
“Proud of our operation and what we were able to accomplish today. Wish we could have lined up and tried to get it, but that’s always easy to say after Daytona you go back and would love to replay it, but a good day for us.”
Allmendinger is hoping Saturday’s performance will give the team a boost the rest of the regular season in pursuit of a playoff berth.
“Solid night, when you are that close you would like to get a little bit more, but it could have been a lot worse,” he said. “A little bit of momentum after my mess up at Sonoma. So, hopefully this kicks us off into the second half of the season. Go to Kentucky, Kroger’s home race and have a good showing there.”
