NASCAR driver heaps praise on the late Justin Wilson

A.J. Allmendinger spoke highly of the late Justin Wilson and his IndyCar career when reflecting upon his own open-wheel racing career.

Six years ago today, IndyCar driver Justin Wilson passed away at the age of 37, just one day after he was involved in a crash at Pocono Raceway.

When the car of Sage Karam spun in turn one of the three-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) “Tricky Triangle” in Long Pond, Pennsylvania, the nose cone broke off and bounced across the track before hitting Wilson’s helmet, knocking him unconscious.

He was a passenger at that point, and his car veered left into the inside retaining barrier. He was airlifted to Lehigh Valley Health Network Hospital in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where he passed away on Monday, August 24, 2015.

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We recently had the opportunity to speak with former Champ Car driver A.J. Allmendinger, who now competes full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and part-time in the Cup Series, a little bit about his open-wheel career, and he heaped a ton of praise on the late Wilson.

We asked Allmendinger who he would consider the toughest driver he ever competed against during his three seasons in Champ Car from 2004 to 2006. He first mentioned Sebastien Bourdais, who won the championships all three of those seasons and went on to win a fourth straight in 2007.

“When it comes to Champ Car specifically, I’d have to say it was definitely Sebastien Bourdais, because he was spot-on when it came to his race team and what they needed out of those cars at Newman-Haas,” Allmendinger said. “Competing against him every week, we knew that that was the best team, and he was the champion of the series. They never really had a weakness.”

But his praise for Wilson, his teammate at  RuSPORT during the 2005 season and part of the 2006 season, was arguably higher.

“But honestly, on a weekend basis, the toughest guy I had to compete against was my teammate Justin Wilson,” Allmendinger admitted. “We were in the same equipment, he was so good and so fast and was so smooth doing it. At times, it was intimidating. At times, it was frustrating.”

However, it was a good kind of frustrating, because Allmendinger benefited from it in the long run.

“At the same point, he was such a close friend of mine that he helped make me better every time I was in the race car,” he continued. “But knowing that we were in the same exact equipment and I was racing against him every weekend, and he was just so talented.

“At that time, especially when we were teammates at RuSPORT, I knew our equipment wasn’t the best compared to Newman-Haas, so we knew Sebastien Bourdais was always the guy to beat every weekend. But on seeing it and having to be against it and be compared to it every weekend, Justin Wilson for sure.”

After Allmendinger left the series, he still followed Wilson’s open-wheel career, and he always hoped that he would end up driving for one of the top teams.

“I always wanted him to get one of those top rides in IndyCar, especially when the series merged, because to me, he could’ve been the champion every year, because he was that good.”

Wilson won four races in Champ Car, including a career-high two in the 2005 season and one in each of the 2006 and 2007 seasons when he finished in second place in the championship standings behind Bourdais.

Wilson went on to win three races in IndyCar, one in each of the 2008, 2009 and 2012 seasons, but never got the opportunity to compete full-time for a top team.