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MOORESVILLE, N.C. (AP) — AJ Allmendinger hit the jackpot Wednesday.

After losing his primary sponsor with Richard Petty's team, Roger Penske quickly hired the improving Sprint Cup driver to replace Kurt Busch in the No. 22 car.

To Allmendinger, it's a perfect pairing. To the Penske team, it was a move that simply made sense.

"I guess the word 'potential' is what continues to come up," Penske Racing president Tim Cindric said on a conference call. "We looked at everybody, we did our due diligence. AJ is somebody we've talked to over the years, but he wasn't somebody we considered until really the 11th hour when there was noise that they (Petty's team) might not be able to make things work over there. But nobody has had a better progression than he has."

Cindric would not divulge details of the contract, though it is believed to be a one-year deal. He also acknowledged that the team's short list of candidates was actually quite long and included many of the rumored names — Brian Vickers, David Ragan and David Reutimann among them.

Instead, Penske's team returned to its open-wheel racing roots by signing Allmendinger.

In 2002, Allmendinger won the Barber Dodge Pro Series title. In 2003, he won the Toyota Atlantics title. In 2004, he was Champ Car's rookie of the year. Then, in 2005, Allmendinger looked as if he was on track to becoming an open-wheel star when he won five times and finished third in points in the now defunct Champ Car World Series.

He joined the Cup circuit in 2007 and has shown steady improvement each season. As a rookie, he finished 43rd in points. Since then, he's finished 36th, 24th, 19th and 15th last season when he posted 10 top-10 finishes.

That was enough to convince Penske and Cindric that the 30-year-old Californian was the right man for the job.

"To have Mr. Penske personally want you to drive his race car, it gives you a lot of confidence," Allmendinger said. "I'm not blind to the pressure to perform. If I didn't feel like I could do that, I would feel like I was wasting everyone's time. I feel like I can take that next step and be a winner. I know this is the best chance I've ever had in the Sprint Cup series to go out there and perform and I'm ready to do that."

It won't be easy.

The Christmas week announcement will force Allmendinger and his new crew chief, Todd Gordon, to play catch-up with the other teams. Many of the Penske employees also scheduled to leave town Thursday for an extended holiday break. Before they depart, Allmendinger hopes to get a crash course at the team shop and spend some precious time with Gordon, who worked for Penske's Nationwide Series team in 2011.

Allmendinger also must scramble to build chemistry with his new teammate Brad Keselowski, who at age 27 becomes the longest-tenured driver on Penske's team. Allmendinger said he's met Keselowski but that the two don't know each other too well.

Plus, he must live up to the usual Penske standards.

Busch, the 2004 Cup champion, hasn't finished outside the top 20 in points since and has become a regular in the season-ending chase. Last year, Busch won two races, took three poles and finished 11th overall.

Two weeks ago, Busch and Penske mutually decided to part ways after six bumpy seasons, opening the door to Allmendinger.

"I always wanted to drive for Mr. Penske, so when the opportunity arose, I jumped right at," Allmendinger said. "It was something I wanted to be a part of. The last five years, I feel like I've made a good progression each year and I really hope this will help me take the next step and contend for a championship."

Penske expects nothing less.

MADRID, SPAIN (AP) —Spanish driver Jaime Alguersuari said he is “very surprised” by Toro Rosso’s decision to drop him for the 2012 Formula One season.

Alguersuari said Thursday that team principal Franz Tost and adviser Helmut Marko had as recently as Monday “told me to insist on our 2012 project in F1.”

Toro Rosso announced two days later that Daniel Ricciardo of Australia and Jean-Eric Vergne of France would replace Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi in the Italian team’s driver lineup for next season.

Even so, Alguersuari said he accepted the disappointing news and trusted that his former bosses had their reasons.

“I will not judge the reasons for the decision, because Red Bull gave me everything since I was 15 years old,” he said. “I’ve been formed by them, and I’ve become a complete F1 driver at age 21.”

Tost explained in a team statement released later Thursday that the overhaul of his lineup was due to Toro Rosso’s mission of acting as a “rookie training school” for Red Bull Racing.

“With over two seasons under your belt, you are no longer a rookie,” Tost said. “In an ideal world, drivers would move from Scuderia Toro Rosso to Red Bull Racing, but there are no vacancies with our sister team right now.”

Tost also clarified that the final decision to replace his drivers for the past three seasons had been taken on Tuesday, a day after Alguersuari said they had spoken about him continuing in 2012.

“It might be seen as a harsh decision, but Formula One is a tough environment and Toro Rosso has always been very clear about the principles behind its driver choice,” Tost said.

How can I sum up my 2011 season? Simply put: roller coaster. The season started with elation as I landed a ride with Newman/Haas Racing, secured the support from Sprott Inc. for Round 2, and finally realized my lifelong goal of becoming an IndyCar driver. It ended with heartbreak at the loss of a good friend and great competitor, Dan Wheldon. Highest of highs, lowest of lows.

Everything in between also fits that description quite well. The incredible high of my first race was quickly undercut as I ended up with a DNF. Follow that up with a top-five in only my second race, and I was back on top of the world. The month of May showed a lot of promise and potential, but my Indy race ended in the wall at half distance. This seesawing continued all year long, with peaks in Milwaukee, Loudon, Sonoma, Kentucky, and valleys in Texas, Toronto, Baltimore, and, of course, Las Vegas.

The roller-coaster effect could even crop up within a single race. We followed a poor starting spot with a strong race in Toronto in which we were set for a top-six until caught up in a restart melee with just a handful of laps to go. Mid-Ohio was my best road-course qualifying up to that point. I was pushed off on Lap 1 and fell to the back, but, through a great call from the pits, I found myself up front for a restart, passed for the lead, and held that position for the entire stint. I then spun on a late restart and all was lost again. Up and down, up and down.

There were certainly a few things that caught me off guard this season. I was surprised, from my first test with Newman/Haas in December at Sebring, how comfortable I was in the car. Right away I felt able to push the limits of the car. It gave me a real appreciation for the time I spent in Firestone Indy Lights because the cars had a very similar feel.

Then we got to the ovals. My experience on the road and street courses early in the year led me to expect certain things about how the car would behave on ovals. I thought: similar to a Lights car on the road courses, so will it be similar on the ovals? Let’s not forget I didn’t have a chance to test the Indy car on an oval before rookie orientation at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I quickly learned that the difference between the Lights car and Indy car on the ovals was much greater than on the road courses.

The sheer speed these things travel at is incredible. On top of that, I had to learn what a well-handling car felt like on these types of tracks. Oval racing is all about the little things, the tiny nuances of the handling, and it takes time to develop that feel. And that feeling differs from Indianapolis Motor Speedway to the 1.5 mile tracks to the short tracks. Since the first four oval races of the year were all on very different tracks, there was a huge learning curve every time we rolled up.

Just setting the car up was one thing. Next I had to get a grasp on the race craft. Learning how the car behaved in dirty air and what you could do with it was another big task. I was learning on every lap of every race. Furthermore, compared to Lights, we have a lot more tools in the cockpit to adjust the handling of the car, and learning how to use them all to stay on top of the balance through a stint was also a major undertaking. At this level, it really is a thinking man’s sport.

Looking back, we surprised ourselves in a lot of ways this year. Qualifying was particularly good for us. We missed getting out of Q1 only twice and also made the Firestone Fast Six at Sonoma and Motegi. Factor in a pair of second-row starts on the ovals and it really was a good effort by the whole team. To be part of a team like Newman/Haas in my rookie year was beyond my wildest dreams. I watched for years as they dominated the sport. Now I was part of that machine. This season, Oriol and I worked endlessly with every member of the team to achieve the best possible results. The spoils were a top-four finish in the championship for Oriol and the Sunoco Rookie of the Year award for myself. Both accomplishments are something the team is incredibly proud of.

I loved the opportunity to work with and learn from the incredible people at Newman/Haas. Equally enjoyable was getting to battle on track with some of the best drivers in the world. I learned more in the last eight months than I ever thought possible, and I can’t wait to take that knowledge into the 2012 season and continue my education.

I think motorsport in general is a roller-coaster ride, on track and off. For a rookie, that effect can be magnified because the whole environment is new. It was such an incredible year – one I’ll never forget – and it gave me a true appreciation for what I’m incredibly fortunate to be able to do for a living. There may be good days and bad, but, at the end of each day, I can still call myself an IndyCar driver. There’s nothing else on earth I’d rather be.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Kurt Busch and Penske Racing parted ways Monday after six bumpy seasons, a split that clouds the former champion's future in NASCAR as he embarks on a personal journey to reclaim his passion for racing.

Both the team and driver said ending the relationship was a "mutual agreement," but most believe Busch was fired in the fallout of yet another embarrassing incident. A fan caught Busch on video verbally abusing an ESPN reporter during last month's season finale, and Busch was fined US$50,000 by NASCAR after the clip was posted on YouTube.

Busch, though, was insistent leaving Penske is probably the best thing for him personally and seemed at peace during an interview with The Associated Press.

"What's troublesome is this five letter 'f-i-r-e-d' word is being used, but it's obvious to me that looking back, I was very unhappy over the second half of the season," Busch told the AP.

"I need to put the fun back into racing for me. I want to be a better driver and a better person. Today is the day that begins. I take a deep breath, I smile, and I move forward from here."

Busch admitted last week during activities surrounding the season-ending awards ceremony that he began seeing a sports psychologist about two months ago to address what he called "personal issues."

Known for both his intensity and notorious meltdowns during in-race communications with his race team, the 2011 season was particularly brutal for Busch.

Although he won two races and made the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, he had an epic tantrum over his in-car radio at Richmond in May that set the tone for the season. He feuded with rival Jimmie Johnson and openly struggled with an ability to keep his competition with Johnson in perspective.

Busch also had at least three public flare-ups with media members, Steve Addington became his second crew chief to quit in three years, and he was overshadowed on and off the track by Penske teammate Brad Keselowski. He also became publicly annoyed over interest in his ongoing divorce and new relationship with Patricia Driscoll, head of the national charity the Armed Forces Foundation.

His behaviour wore thin on the buttoned-up Penske organization, which signed Busch away from Roush Fenway Racing a year removed from his 2004 Cup championship. Busch said after reflecting during the U.S. Thanksgiving break, he came to realize he maybe just isn't Penske material.

"I'm not sure I was the best fit," he admitted. "My frankness and my intensity, it didn't play the way I intended it to. It didn't fit."

Busch won 10 Cup races and made the Chase four times since joining Penske in 2006. Bud Denker, senior vice-president for Penske Corp., seemed puzzled by Busch's assessment of his fit with the organization.

"We thought he did a terrific job for us on the track, and there is no better driver who hits the marks, relative to sponsors and understanding the brands, then Kurt," Denker said. "He was admirable. I never saw him as a bad fit, so those are his thoughts."

Denker was also quick to stress that Busch was not fired and the split came after weeks of discussions about concerns both sides had regarding the direction of the organization. Busch has always been outspoken about how he believes things should be done, and regardless of his incident at Homestead with ESPN reporter Dr. Jerry Punch, both sides had been moving toward a split.

"Was the Homestead situation the reason he left? No. We had our concerns and he had his, and it was time for us to separate," Denker said. "I think we've done it mutually and above board. It was not a firing. We did not fire Kurt Busch.

"We said 'here's where we are going in the future, Kurt, and we talked to our sponsors and they concurred with us."

Shell, primary sponsor of the No. 22 Dodge, said in a statement it supported the decision.

"Shell and Pennzoil utilize our motorsports program to gain technical knowledge for our products and brands and to promote them to consumers in a positive way," the statement said. "Moving forward we will continue to work with the team at Penske Racing and to evaluate the best options for our motorsports program."

Denker said discussions began in earnest Monday on a replacement for Busch, and the team had been contacted by several drivers "raising their hand." Among active Cup drivers available are David Ragan, Brian Vickers and David Reutimann, who all head into 2012 without rides.

There's a deep pool of talent in the Nationwide Series, as well, but Denker said longtime Penske driver Sam Hornish Jr. is not a candidate.

"Our intentions all along have been to run Sam for the Nationwide Series championship next season," Denker said. "We love that plan, NASCAR loves that plan, the sponsors love that plan."

It's also not clear where Busch is headed next. There are no competitive rides available unless a team owner specifically makes room for him, but Busch would not commit in his interview with the AP to returning to NASCAR next season.

He peculiarly said he wants to "be remembered as a champion driver" and laughed when asked if that was a goodbye.

Busch has dabbled in NHRA and Street Stock Racing in the past, and said that's where he's found the most joy of late.

"That's where I had the smile on the face," he said. "It reminded me of the beginning days of racing for me."

At 33, Busch has a long racing future ahead of him, and his 24 career victories and 11 seasons have given him flexibility to take his time planning his future. He joked he landed in NASCAR at the wrong time, and that the hard-nosed 1980s era when the emphasis was more on racing and less on sponsorship and off-track issues, was probably better suited for him.

"The '80s were a great decade. I just missed it," he said.

Busch, meanwhile, is the older brother of Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch, who also spent the last month of the season in turmoil. An annual title contender, he was suspended by NASCAR in early November for intentionally wrecking Ron Hornaday Jr. under caution in a Truck Series race at Texas.

NASCAR also fined Kyle Busch $50,000, and the driver had to fight to save his seat in the final two races of the year when sponsor M&M's balked at letting him race. No decision has been formally announced regarding Kyle Busch's participation in Nationwide and Truck races next season, although M&M's indicated it will continue to sponsor him in Cup.