Dinger unleashed: Job hunter

Every other Wednesday, AJ Allmendinger writes a column for Yahoo! Sports. In his third of a five-race deal with Gillett Evernham Motorsports, he finished 26th at Texas.

Like a lot of you, I'm looking for a job at the wrong time to look for a job.

Being a driver in my position, without a contract for 2009, is no different from the crew guys or anybody. Everybody's struggling. There's no self pity here. There are a lot of people going through this.

I think I've caught the right people's attention. I just think with all the merging and the economy the way it is – I've caught their attention, but there's not a lot people can do right now.

The biggest thing is I gotta let some of these mergers play out and see if that opens something up or if that just closes more doors. I don't think anybody's going to do anything until those issues are settled, and most of the jobs still out there involve teams that are talking merger with other teams.

Until that plays out, I think you really can't talk to them. They've called and told me they have me in mind if something opens up, but it can't really go any farther than that.

I wouldn't even put a bet on where I'll be next year. I'd really like to get something done – if Gillett Evernham had a fourth car, maybe – but I don't know. I'm still confident that I'm going to find something for next year, but it's getting close to the end of the season.

I do like it here at Gillett Evernham. They got all the right tools. What's neat is that if you need something changed, they go back and change it right away.

They're having me do a ton of testing, which I feel really good about. It makes me feel like I'm part of the team and that I bring something to the team that hopefully can help.

Next year, if I'm there or even if I'm not, I feel like I'm at least being a small piece of the puzzle to help them get better.

I think they're disappointed as a group in terms of how we've all been running in the sense that we know we could be better.

But you know what? These cars are hard to set up. Just look at Jimmie Johnson last weekend. He's been God for 10 weeks and at Texas he couldn't get out of his way by his own standards.

It really hit me, though, going to Texas that here are only a couple of races left and I'm not even close to being set with anybody for next year.

But you know, times are tough. I guess that's why we've got a new President.

I wasn't caught up in the election. For the first time this year, I actually watched some of what was going on and paid attention. But I honestly got sick of listening to them bicker at each other. I felt like I was at a NASCAR race and drivers were bickering back and forth through the press at each other.

I did vote.

Mostly, though, my life is consumed with looking for a new job.

And on a better note, Brett Favre might not be playing great, but at least the Jets are tied for the division lead.

I'm pumped about the weekend in Phoenix. It'll be my first Cup race there. I've got McDonald's as my sponsor. The car looks slick. Hopefully it'll be as fast as it looks.