With his departure of Red Bull Racing, A.J. Allmendinger expects the event at Kansas Speedway to be his encore with the organization.

"I'm racing this weekend at Kansas, but I'm almost 100 percent sure I won't be with Red Bull after this race," Allmendinger said. "Hopefully I'll have something and I'll be in a car next week. Whether it's the team I'm going to be with for next year, and we can start working on that, or what ... that's kind of where we stand."

The second year driver noted that Red Bull Racing is the reason that he was in NASCAR to begin with and is happy that he got the chance.

"I had a lot of good things happen to me because of Red Bull," he said. "I'm where I'm at now because of Red Bull. Sure I'm disappointed, but I can also look at it and say if it weren't for some of the decisions they made, I wouldn't have anybody calling me looking for another ride."

After making a tremendous turnaround after Mike Skinner evaluated the No. 84 team, the news comes as a shock to most.

Knowing that this would have happened eventually, Allmendinger passed on a one year contract extension. Although he wanted to remain with the team, Allmendinger knew the seperation would happen now or next year.

Allmendinger has talked with Chip Ganassi Racing about the open No. 41 Dodge and some IRL teams, but he hopes to remain in NASCAR.

"Personally, though, I want to stay in NASCAR. I've worked too hard to learn these cars," he said. "The hardest thing I've ever had to do in my career, personally and mentally, is to fight and claw my way into this sport and to go through all that and say, 'You know what, I had two years. I'm going to leave.'

"I'm not ready to do that. I've got too much to accomplish."