The wild and winding career path of NASCAR’s AJ Allmendinger

NASCAR fans are relatively acquainted with AJ Allmendinger, who has been a major part of the series since 2007, but his path to racing stock cars was never really a straight line, nor was it originally aimed at this particular series at all. What could be considered a series of course-correcting events, most interesting and eventually considered fortunate across his career, would eventually land the talented driver yet a fourth run at the Cup series championship in 2025, as announced earlier this week.

It was clear that Allmendinger was a natural talent from a young age. Starting on BMX bikes, he’d quickly make a name for himself as a two-time champion in the International Kart Federation. He followed his championships with a rapid rise in the American open-wheel ladder series—winning the 2003 Champ Car Atlantic title before joining Champ Car in 2004 (the nightmarish IRL/CART split was still ongoing at this time). Red Bull had also quickly signed the young driver on as a brand representative. Allmendinger would dedicate three years to Champ Car, honing his skills before he won five races in the 2006 season. It seemed like he was well on his way to becoming one of the top open-wheel racers in the country. But much like what we’ll see as a bit of a trend with his career, what appeared to be one solid course trajectory would quickly change.

Joining Red Bull’s NASCAR venture

Red Bull was in its early years of getting into the business of running race teams instead of sponsoring them, and launched its Formula 1 operation in 2005. A year later, they took on the world of NASCAR. They’d sign their Red Bull athlete, Allmendinger in October 0f 2006 to go stock car racing, with Guenther Steiner joining as the technical director. Allmendinger was excited for this career pivot going into his rookie season.

“To race against some of the best drivers in the world in front of fans that are as enthusiastic about racing as I am is going to be a pretty big thrill,” he said. “I know this is going to be a lot of work in the upcoming months, but I couldn’t be happier to do it with Team Red Bull. Hopefully, we can all go out and deliver a good show.”

Unfortunately, fate had other plans, that ended in disaster. Allmendinger failed to qualify for the first four races of the 2007 season, including the season-opening Daytona 500 after…