AJ Allmendinger thought his NASCAR career was basically over when he found out he’d be replaced at JTG Daugherty Racing for 2019. Without much lined up, he was at peace calling it quits.

Allmendinger, knew that he’d have a shot in IMSA for the 24 Hour race at Daytona with pal Mike Shank, but also had a future in broadcasting too as he was joining NBC Sports’ new IMSA coverage, plus being a guest on their NASCAR platforms too.

Then, Kaulig Racing came calling for a part time role. They wanted to bring a third car out for select races and wanted Allmendinger as the driver.

He started off at Daytona in July of last year and crossed the finish line third in what was a 1-2-3 team result — or so they thought. Allmendinger’s No. 16 Chevrolet failed post race inspection and he was consequentially scored in last (38th place) as a result.

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In his next opportunity a month later in Watkins Glen, he finish second to Austin Cindric. But, his car failed tech again.

A week later, he finally passed inspection at Mid-Ohio. He got to keep his third place result. Two starts later, he’d win on the ROVAL in Charlotte. That got him an opportunity for 2020.

In his third start of a part time schedule, he won in Atlanta — the first Dash 4 Cash race of the year. A week later, he finished fourth last Sunday at Homestead to take $100k as the top Dash 4 Cash finisher.

Two wins, six times crossing the start finish line in the top four in eight tries has Allmendinger grateful for the opportunity.

“Now me just being at a different point in my life and really being so thankful for any opportunity that I get to drive a race car, but especially with Kaulig Racing because (owner) Matt Kaulig really has made that third car generally my car,” Allmendinger said.

“They basically said that when (the No. 16 car is) running, they want me driving it. Just all the men and women of Kaulig Racing, for them to give me these opportunities. I just want to always show my appreciation and my thanks for the effort that everybody puts in. And the best way to go do it is to go win races and then with the Dash for Cash from Xfinity to have that $100,000, which as you know, it’s a big deal.”

Allmendinger noted that he hasn’t had this much success consecutively since his old Champ Car days over a decade ago. He’s going to enjoy it more now than he did then.

“Back in my Champ Car days, to have the run that we did where I won three in a row, that was a lot of fun,” said Allmendinger. “It was kind of the same situation. It was unique in the sense that that was with a new team (Forsythe Racing) when I did it in Champ Car, and I don’t want to say it was unexpected but when you go to a new team like that to have that much success so early was a little bit of a shock.”

Now, it’s to Talladega on Saturday for the third leg of the Dash 4 Cash. He’s currently 2-for-2. Can he make it three in-a-row?

“I’m always a little bit nervous of the unknowns of how a car is going to drive and just trying to get used to it and get a comfort level during the race in an Xfinity car at (new race tracks),” Allmendinger said.

“Take out the race itself and being Talladega and knowing that anything can happen … we know that the Kaulig Racing Chevy’s are fast, ECR horsepower, Chevrolet, we know that the cars have a lot of speed. So what happened at Daytona was a mechanical failure on both mine and Ross (Chastain’s) car that we fixed and it won’t be an issue again. It was unfortunate that it happened at Daytona, but you know, I look at it when things like that happen, you know, positives come out of it.

“I don’t know if that led to have an opportunity to go race in Atlanta and so on. So our superspeedway program has always been really fast, (with) last year at Daytona with Ross winning. Ross and Justin (Haley) at Talladega and Daytona won stages. So these cars are going to be fast and our engineers have been really good about the simulation and making sure all the ride heights and everything are correct.”