AJ Allmendinger was brought to tears following Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400. He had endured four late race restart but never flinched to score his third career NASCAR Cup Series victory.
“You don’t know when you’re going to do it again,” Allmendinger said on why he was so emotional. “I love all the men and women at Kaulig Racing so much. First of all, hi to my beautiful wife and my new baby boy. I usually give these checkered flags away but I’m going to have to wrap this around Aero. My mom and dad, all my family and friends, those people see how much anguish and how much I put it on my shoulders when we’re struggling. It just means the world.
“I hate crying right now, but it’s a freaking Cup race, man. You don’t know when it’s ever going to happen again. Let’s go!”
Allmendinger played for the win pitting before the stages ended each time. He pit on Laps 20 and 43. It put him towards the front in the final stage and on Lap 57, passed Kyle Busch for the top spot. He’d lead the next 13 laps before pitting on Lap 70 when almost everyone on the lead lap hit pit lane just in case a caution would come out for an on track incident for Michael McDowell.
It didn’t end up happening.
Ryan Blaney took over the lead until a caution did come out for an incident from Denny Hamlin on the front stretch. Blaney hit pit lane handing the lead back to Allmendinger.
Despite Busch’s, Ty Gibbs and William Byron’s best efforts, Allmendinger never flinched. He beat Byron across the finish line by .66-seconds ending a 50 race winless streak that spans 79 races since he hasn’t raced every Cup event since his last win on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on Aug. 15, 2021.
“This is why you do it. This is the only reason you do it. You fight. All the blood, sweat, tears, everybody at Kaulig Racing has just been such — I’d say a down year, but up-and-down year. It’s our second year in the Cup Series,” said Allmendinger.
I can’t thank Celsius enough for coming on board, Nutrient Ag Solutions, Action Industries, Leaf Filter, all of our partners, Chevy, ECR for everything that they do for us, Matt Kaulig especially, Chris Rice. Sparco and Arai Helmets and Corby Concepts, everybody that allows me to do this, but especially Matt and Chris, I freaking love you guys so much.”
All 3 of his cup wins have come on road courses including 2 of which on ROVAL’s. 11 of his Xfinity Series wins have also come on road courses too.
He beat Byron who scored the most points on road courses in 2023.
“Yeah, just one final run to get within a car length there,” Byron said of the end. “The air buffer is kind of tough there with three to four car lengths, but once you get within one you can kind of manipulate his car a little bit. I was just hoping for that.
“But he’s obviously great here and great at all the road courses. I had that one shot with probably eight to go. He did a good job blocking the chicane there and he didn’t miss his marks, and it was too early to make a dive bomb move.
“Just proud of the whole team, the Z by HP Camaro was awesome. We definitely improved a lot as the race went on. Good to have Z by HP on the car, a new partner for us, so that was really fun. But yeah, just good momentum.”
Busch finished third while Ty Gibbs and Joey Logano rounded out the top five.
Allmendinger A ROVAL Ace
Allmendinger is the fourth non playoff driver to win the Round of 12 elimination race but first since 2013. None of which was under this new playoff format that was adopted in 2014 and he’s also the first for the Charlotte ROVAL.
In saying that, Allmendinger’s finishes here in the Xfinity Series is 1st, 1st, 1st, 1st. In the Cup Series, he’s now finished 7th, 38th, 4th, 1st. That’s 5 wins in 8 starts.
Byron Rolling
William Byron has a ton of momentum heading into the next round. In the Round of 12, he finished 1st, 2nd, 2nd. With having a series leading 6 wins during the season and all those playoff points accounted for, this year’s Round of 8 visit feels a lot different than last year’s.
“We’ve got to keep it rolling. I’d like to do one-two-two in the next round. That would be ideal, but keep performing where we want to be,” Byron admitted.
He said he hopes he’s not peaking too soon however.
“We got to peak like that at Phoenix,” he says. “But I was under the weather today, but I wasn’t feeling great. All I wanted to do was great in the race car today, and my guys gave me a good car and just let me kind of focus on what my job needed to be.
“I want to go home and rest and get this cold out of the way and get ready for Vegas.”
Clean Race But Stage Breaks Made This Strategy Race
While there was 7 cautions for 18 laps, much of Sunday was clean. The stage breaks didn’t do much outside of change strategies but is that what NASCAR wants to become?
While Allmendinger is certainly a deserving winner on the ROVAL, one could say Tyler Reddick had the fastest car. He led the first 27 laps but played the stage points game since he was -2 entering.
Allmendinger played the race winning strategy. So did the entire top 5. All pit before the stages would end. Reddick didn’t which left him 6th.
This year, the fastest cars won since the stage break cautions didn’t fly. 4 of the 5 road races without stage break cautions were won by drivers leading the most laps. In 5 of the 6 road courses run last year, the only laps led by the eventual winner all occurred in the final stage.
Allmendinger led the most laps on Sunday (46 laps led) but all came in the final stage again.
This had changed this year because of this new rule of not stopping at stages. You can stay out front.
Do teams short pit or long pit? Do you do the overcut or undercut? Can you pit with clean air in front of you entering and in front of you exiting. In and out laps were key too.
Strategy was open again and I loved it.
As a result, 4 of the 5 race winners without stage breaks each started in the top 3. The furthest back was 8th.
Now, it’s gone. The only strategy is who pits before stages and who doesn’t.
Last year, none of the road course races saw a driver that had won finish in points in Stage 1. This year, they’ve finished 23rd, 2nd, 3rd, 1st, 2nd.
Allmendinger was 10th in Stage 1. He pit on Lap 20, 5 laps before the end of the first stage.
In Stage 2 a season ago, they finished: 8th (COTA), 4th (Sonoma), 10th (Road America), no points (Indy) and 8th (Watkins Glen), no points (ROVAL). This year in Stage 2: 1st (COTA), 7th (Sonoma), 3rd (Chicago), 2nd (Indy) and 1st (Watkins Glen).
Allmendinger was 12th in Stage 2 as he pit on Lap 43, 7 laps before the end of the second stage.
See how much it’s changed?
Which sets up a weird circumstance for these races with stage breaks. If you go for stage points, you won’t win. If you want to win, you have to punt on points. Seems backwards.
Just like last year, the first two stages were clean. There were 5 cautions from Lap 77 until Lap 98.
Without cautions for stage breaks this season, Indy had just 1 caution for 3 laps. Watkins Glen had 1 for 4 laps. Last year, until inside of 10 laps-to-go, we had just two cautions and both were for stage break and it didn’t spice up the show.
Elimination A Quiet One
Barring someone below the cutline winning, it was going to likely be a quiet day in the elimination category. Yes, points were tight among the drivers needing them, but with Brad Keselowski entering the day +2 and Tyler Reddick being -2, one could easily say Reddick would get in on points which left Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain and Kyle Busch needing to win to make things interesting.
That foreshadowing is what happened.
Wallace and Chastain really never had a shot. Busch did but came up just short in 3rd. Keselowski started 19th and finished 18th and 20th in the pair of stages. Reddick was on the pole and won the first stage and was 4th in Stage 2 netting him 17 stage points.
In the final stage, it was down to could Busch win and if so, the final battle between Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. for the 8th spot would have been a good one.
But, AJ Allmendinger was just that good keeping Busch out of victory lane and Reddick in and Keselowski out.
Truex Ready For Another Reset
The good? Martin Truex Jr. will move onto the Round of 8. The bad? He’s needing another reset. Truex Jr. finished 20th on Sunday. In a Round that saw him finish 17th, 18th, 20th, he’s still moving on.
He can thank playoff points for that.
He’s now finished 17th, first, 32nd, seventh, sixth, 20th on road courses this season. Last year, he finished 7th, 26th, 13th, 21st, 23rd and 17th on them. Truex should have won the inaugural race here, was seventh in the two races after that but 29th, 17th and 20th since.
Now, the margin for error is so much smaller. If you go back to the regular season finale at Daytona, he’s finished 18th or worse in all 7 races with no laps led. That’s finishes of 18th, 36th, 19th, 17th, 18th, 20th this postseason.
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