Top Dog: AJ Allmendinger
With each passing season, the craft of the NASCAR field on road courses continues to sharpen.
The days of a road ringer dominating have slowly evaporated into thin air, an admirable nod to the regulars for their efforts to become more competitive.
That transformation was on full display this past weekend at Circuit of the Americas, where several international stars and established road racing masters tried their hand at North America’s top motorsport across all three levels.
In the EchoPark Automotive 500 (March 24), foreign stars such as New Zealand’s Shane van Gisbergen and Japan’s Kamui Kobayashi appeared in cars that were capable of running well.
Yet, it was NASCAR’s own road warrior in AJ Allmendinger who stood above the rest at the end of the day in sixth.
Driving a third entry for Kaulig Racing in the No. 13, the weekend was not a bed of roses for the veteran. His frustration was evident in a radio exchange during qualifying, which he later said was aimed at himself. Despite some handling issues, he still mustered a 14th-place starting spot.
Allmendinger burst through the gates to fire off, immediately grabbing four spots on the first lap. He shot up to sixth quickly before using the standard road course strategy by pitting before the stage end. That gave him a 14th-place stage one finish.
Stage two saw the Dinger crack the top five, flexing his muscles by passing some strong competition. Once again, his team opted to go for the win by flipping the stage and pitting with two laps left.
After finishing stage two in 22nd, Allmendinger restarted in 12th and quickly climbed back inside the top 10. A caution-free final stage saw green flag pits stop midway through for the 42-year-old, and he picked up right where he left off for the final stint. A pass on Ross Chastain gave him sixth, where he would close out the day to grab his second top 10 in three starts this season.
The day smoothed over a missed opportunity at a Kaulig 1-2 between van Gisbergen and Allmendinger in the NASCAR Xfinity Series on Saturday, where cautions and track limit penalties snared both in the closing laps.
Though it has been revealed that Allmendinger did not want to return to a part-time Cup schedule, it has seemed to be his forte the last couple of years. If you combine his 2021 and 2022 part-time stints at Kaulig with the first two races of 2024, he would have a 50% top 10 rate with 13 top 10s…
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