NASCAR Watkins Glen 2014 weekend recap: AJ Allmendinger, JTG Daugherty break through at last

With raw emotion overflowing and a plucky long-shot driver and team in Victory Lane, it was the exact kind of indelible moment NASCAR hoped to manufacture when it restructured the process for earning a Chase for the Sprint Cup bid.

The role of underdog is well suited for Allmendinger and JTG Daugherty. Neither previously enjoyed the elation of winning at NASCAR’s top realm before Watkins Glen, and each faced numerous, imposing hurdles along the way.

Two years ago Allmendinger was out of the sport completely, serving a suspension after failing a random drug test. The 32-year-old lost his high-profile seat with Team Penske and a once promising future in NASCAR seemed certainly over.

Owning up to his mistakes, Allmendinger successfully completed NASCAR’s Road to Recovery program. He was back behind the wheel six months later, but a ride with a top team never materialized. The only rides available were one-offs driving cars with no real shot at victory.

“Over the course of what happened, it made me become a better person and just really try to understand what life is all about, because unfortunately the sport will take over your life,” Allmendinger said. “When it’s good, it takes over, but when it’s bad, it really takes over because that’s all you can think about.”

Since taking their team to Sprint Cup competition on a full-time basis in 2009, co-owners Tad and Jodi Geschickter and Brad Daugherty have gradually established JTG Daugherty as a solid, respectable organization.

Yet in NASCAR’s hierarchy they were a mom-and-pop operation competing against the big box stores with deep pockets and an infinite amount of resources at their disposal. And though there were some near-misses, including a third-place finish in the Daytona 500, ultimate success kept escaping JTG Daugherty.

What the team needed to take the next step was a driver with enough know-how to overcome its limitations, while at the same time still young enough to be a cornerstone for what was a still growing organization.

That driver was Allmendinger. Desperate for another permanent ride and yearning to be a team’s central focus, JTG Daugherty had found its ideal wheelman.

“I knew he was the right guy for this team. We try and run it like a family and he was looking for a home,” Tad Geschickter said. “I’ve told him since I first got to know him that when he believes in his ability as much as God gave him the ability, he’s going to be hard to beat.”

If Allmendinger and JTG Daugherty were going to break the proverbial glass ceiling, in all likelihood it would be on a road course where Allmendinger’s skill set best shines.

Driver and team nearly broke through in June at Sonoma Raceway, the other road course on the Sprint Cup schedule. Starting second Allmendinger proved to have the fastest car leading more laps than anyone else. Then contact with Dale Earnhardt Jr. sent Allmendinger into the wall, the heartbreak and disappointment further compounded.

“We’re a smaller team, so it’s a little bit harder for us,” said Daugherty, a former NBA all-star and current ESPN NASCAR analyst. “We felt when we went to Sonoma this year that we were going to win that race, and we did everything that was right and ended up having a bad day.

“When you’re a smaller race team and you tell people we should have won that race and you haven’t had the success, they discard you. They say, ‘Yeah, you’re just dreaming.’”

Becoming the No. 47 team’s best -- and perhaps only -- shot to garner a victory and playoff berth, Watkins Glen was circled on the calendar. Realizing the stakes, JTG Daugherty used one of its four allotted tests at the road course.

That strategy paid dividends Sunday. In a vigorous late tussle with road racing ace Marcos Ambrose, Allmendinger turned the dream into reality. He and JTG Daugherty were in the winner’s circle at long last.

“I’ve worked so hard for over the last eight years to win a race ... it’s all I talk about,” Allmendinger said. “It’s why I am happy about one day and so hard on myself about the next day. I don’t have to hear any more, ‘AJ might be that next first-time winner.’ I’m tired of that.

“I’ve dreamed about this moment and I’m not going to forget it.”

And this was no fluke, courtesy of a lucky break, bad luck befalling someone else or rain falling at an opportune time. This was a straight-up, hard-fought deserved victory for everyone associated with JTG Daugherty.

“It’s a big day for the little guys,” Daugherty said. “We got a chance to kick the big guys in the knees today and boy, we kicked them square in the chin.

“In this business we don’t get to win every week. To have this opportunity is a pinnacle moment for our race team.”

No single-car team has won a Sprint Cup championship in 22 years, and the odds are nearly insurmountable that JTG Daugherty will accomplish the near-impossible. But sometimes all a team needs is a chance, and because of what transpired Sunday that chance now exists.