Why does everyone love Aj Allmendinger?

Everywhere I go, every NASCAR forum I read, everyone is talking about AJ Allmendinger. NASCAR fans are being stunningly fair to him compared to someone like Sam Hornish Jr. Sam has proved himself, won an Indy 500, and frankly has done much better in his one year in NASCAR than AJ did in his two. Last year he struggled to the point that Mike Skinner had to be put in the car to try to get the team on the right track. Two seasons ago he missed OVER half the races. He was driving for Red Bull racing, not a great team, but not terrible either. Brian Vickers was in chase contention for a long time and had a very good year. Maybe its time to give some other more pr oven drivers a little love, after all, Scott Speed has already been more successful in his stock car career, with 3 wins in ARCA and Camping World Trucks.