Despite a valiant effort in his sophomore season, the Red Bull Racing Team announced Tuesday that A.J. Allmendinger will not return as the driver of the No. 84 Red Bull Toyota for the 2009 season.

Allmendinger is currently 34th in the owner points and is coming off a 16th-place finish at Dover. This weekend's finish is quite impressive considering the team discovered a broken track-bar mount following the race.

"AJ is a talented driver and we really enjoyed working with him," Jay Frye, Vice President and General Manager of the Red Bull Racing Team explained. "He's come a long way in just two years and we wish him nothing but the best."

The former open-wheel star struggled in the first part of the season, failing to qualify for the first three races of the year. Team officials benched Allmendinger for the next five races and brought over veteran Mike Skinner to help the team climb back up the owners standings, as well as mentor A.J. along the way.

Once Allmendinger climbed back aboard, the 26-year-old California-native showed his time off was well spent. Despite being well outside the top-35, Allmendinger was able to qualify for each event and eventually put the No. 84 Toyota Camry back inside the top-35.

Skinner will be back behind the wheel of the No. 84 for this week's test session at Lowe's Motor Speedway, joining fellow Red Bull Racing Team drivers Brian Vickers and Scott Speed.

According to team officials, Allmendinger will pilot the No. 84 in this weekend's Camping World RV 400 at the Kansas Speedway, but the rest of the year has yet to be determined.

It appears this move was made in order to make way for Speed to climb aboard the No. 84 for the 2009 season, however team officials have made no official announcement as of yet. The former F1 driver currently drives in the ARCA RE/MAX Series and has ten starts in the Craftsman Truck Series with Bill Davis Racing. In those ten races, Speed has one victory (Dover in June), three top-5s and five top-10s.

Allmendinger has shown over the past few months that he is committed to racing in NASCAR's top series and has the skills to do so. While he could have easily given up and returned to open-wheel racing like many others have done, Allmendinger opened his mind and absorbed all he could about how to improve. This kid has more heart than most and - in this writer's opinion - would be a loss to the sport if he is unable to find a ride for next season.