Allmendinger Back With Red Bull at 'Dega

If nothing else, A.J. Allmendinger learned one thing from being benched by his team several races ago in favor of Craftsman Truck Series driver Mike Skinner after missing the first three events of the Sprint Cup season.

His No. 84 is bad no matter who drives it.

"It really gave me a peace of mind because I learned more about what each adjustment does, what [crew chief Ricky Viers] likes to hear and I felt better with Mike saying some of the same things I had been saying," Allmendinger said.

In other words, Allmendinger has seemingly learned some about how to talk about how bad is car is, rather than just post bad lap times.

Red Bull Racing had hoped that Skinner could get the No. 84 back in the Top-35 of owner points as fellow team driver Brian Vickers has done in his No. 83 Toyota. That didn't happen, but the No. 84 is only 111 points out of 35th in 40th position.

With Allmendinger coming back to the car for Friday's qualifying Talladega, the team is hoping that the Toyota restrictor plate qualifying package -- which some have said packs some extra horsepower -- will help Allmendinger put the Camry in the field.

Should Allmendinger make the field, he'll be sporting a very cool silver scheme that RBR paint shop manager Matt Briggs referred to as "bad ass".

A car like that has to make the field, right?