AJ Allmendinger hasn’t run a full-time NASCAR Cup Series season since 2018. He last made a Cup playoffs field in 2014.
And yet there’s not just a very good chance he’ll be part of the Cup playoffs in 2023 — he may also improve upon his career-best points finish of 13th achieved in 2014.
The mere idea of it goes against virtually every NASCAR trend of the past few years. Drivers don’t tend to bounce back into the Cup Series after moving down to a lower national series such as the NASCAR Xfinity Series. And when they do, they’re not immediately treated as a potential postseason contender.
Ty Dillon, for example. Ran a few races in Cup last year after losing his full-time ride and competed even more in Xfinity. Brought back to Cup this year as part of Petty GMS Motorsports. Not treated as someone who had a major shot at the playoffs barring a superspeedway win. (Sure enough, that held.)
Or take Regan Smith, who moved back up to Cup in 2016 with Tommy Baldwin Racing after competing for a few Xfinity championships with JR Motorsports from 2013 to 2015. Despite a second-place Xfinity points finish in 2013, Sam Hornish Jr. wasn’t exactly expected to set the world on fire at Petty when he returned to Cup in 2015. There was some hype for Brian Vickers’ 2014 run for Michael Waltrip Racing after his part-time win in the series in 2013 and a strong Xfinity showing for Joe Gibbs Racing, but he didn’t seem like a sure bet per se (and indeed, he finished 22nd in points that year).
Allmendinger? People already seem to be penciling him in as one of the 16 championship competitors next year amid his return to the Cup Series with Kaulig Racing next year announced earlier this week.
And thing is, they’re not wrong. Because it’ll be weirder if Allmendinger doesn’t make the playoffs in 2023.
Man, imagine if you were coming back to NASCAR right now after, let’s say, a half decade or more away. Allmendinger? The guy who failed to qualify for 19 races in his rookie season in 2007? Got suspended for failing a drug test while running for Team Penske in 2012? Won a Cup race in 2014 but only really seemed able to regularly seal the deal on road courses in Xfinity? Bit of a bust all in all after all that hype coming from open wheel?
Yep, same guy. Oh, and all this is happening just months before his 41st birthday.
The Cup landscape is weird these days, though. 2022 in particular has been a wide-open affair when it comes to clear frontrunners,…
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