A.J. Allmendinger has a ride with Richard Petty Motorsports for at least eight races and the July 4 race at Daytona, the newly minted Richard Petty Motorsports announced Wednesday.

Nice to see the King, Richard Petty, front and center in announcement.

“AJ has a ton of potential,” Petty stated in a team release. “I went testing with him a few weeks ago. When he climbed out of the car I think he went to everyone working on the car asking them questions and wanting to know what was going on. That’s the kind of thing you want out of your driver. He’s a young guy and I think we can help him and he can help us.”

However, I’m still wondering whether ‘Dinger and Elliott Sadler will make nice after their dust up in last year’s All-Star event and ‘Dinger nearly taking over Sadler’s ride in the 19 car. The latter would have happened if not for a silly ol’ thing known as a contract.

Sadler balked at Gillett Evernham Motors trying to oust him from the ride and negotiate a buyout, before the merger with Petty Enterprises. Sadler threatened a lawsuit to get GEM to honor the contract, which has two years to go. It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out this season, with Sadler fully sponsored for the year and Allmendinger sponsored for only part of the year.

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