Amid playoff hunt, AJ Allmendinger looking to stay loose, have fun during doubleheader weekend
Although AJ Allmendinger is waist-deep in the NASCAR Cup Series postseason hunt, an opportunity to participate in road-course action will not go past him, even if the race is in another circuit and state entirely.
Such will be the case this weekend for the 41-year-old Kaulig Racing driver. Allmendinger will fly Friday morning to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, for Saturday’s Xfinity race at Road America (3 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Peacock). He will then quickly hitch another plane ride to Richmond, Virginia, to race in Sunday’s Cook Out 400 (3 p.m. ET, USA, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
Due to his participation in the Road America 180, Allmendinger will miss practice and qualifying at Richmond and start at the rear of the field on Sunday. Part-time Craftsman Truck Series and Xfinity Series racer Derek Kraus will practice in Allmendinger’s absence.
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“It’s something that, between Matt [Kaulig], Chris [Rice] and I, we all decided that we wanted to go do this, and I was going to be on board with whatever Matt and Chris wanted to do, and this is the direction they wanted to go, and yeah. I’m looking forward to it,” Allmendinger said during a virtual teleconference with the media Wednesday. “Going to have a lot of fun with it, especially on Saturday.”
Of course, the option of scrapping Road America entirely was in the cards. After all, with only five regular-season races remaining, it would have been understandable for Allmendinger — who is currently the first driver underneath the provisional 16-driver line for the postseason — to prioritize a points-paying Cup race and start as close to the front of the field as he could.
“We definitely talked about it. At the end of the day, as I said, it was, first and foremost it was Matt’s decision on what he wanted, and then, he kind of left it up to me and Chris, and I told Chris that I was willing to do whatever he wanted me to do, and together, we both decided that we still wanted to do this,” Allmendinger said. “Richmond is a place that, with this car, especially, we probably struggled at, so in a way, whether we practice 20 minutes, at times, it doesn’t really make a huge difference. Starting in the back is a challenge, but I think Richmond is the race track that, if we have the setup right, that you can still move forward.”
Simply wanting to have fun, to Allmendinger, played a part in the decision, too. In what is his first full-time season as a Cup driver since 2018, Allmendinger has found solace in simultaneously vying for a championship and enjoying road racing on the side, too. Allmendinger has won two times in three Xfinity Series starts this season, and one of those wins came at Circuit of The Americas.
Even through the grind of racing a Cup Series regular season in conjunction with trying to clinch a postseason berth, Allmendinger still wishes to abide by the philosophy of doing what he loves. And in Allmendinger’s case, perhaps winning another Xfinity Series race coincides with future success in the Cup Series.
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“Of course, I’m going to show up to Road America and put pressure on myself. We’re not doing this for points, we’re doing this to go win a trophy, and that’s what we want to do,” Allmendinger said. “Hopefully, that’s what we do, but at the end of the day, it’s about enjoying yourself, and that’s the first thing that Matt and Chris have always put on me. Yeah, this is serious, don’t get us wrong, winning is always more fun, but we’re going to enjoy ourselves. Decisions like this, sometimes maybe the outside world is like, why would you do that? Well, we’re gonna do it because A, we want to, and B, we’re gonna enjoy it.
“Me driving a road course, I am always gonna have fun with it, and that helps everything, so at the end of the day, yeah, especially if we can go get the job done and go win the race, we jump on that plane, I’m way better mentally doing that than practicing 20 minutes at Richmond and then, say you qualify 18th and then you go sit in the bus the rest of the day and wonder, ‘Oh my God, how is the race gonna go tomorrow?’ Because, as I’ve said, Richmond is that type of race track where you never know from one day to the next how good your car is gonna be, so this is way better doing it this way, and we’re gonna have a lot of fun with it, and that’s what it’s all about. This is why we do this. So why not have an opportunity that Matt Kaulig gives me to go run Road America? Hell yeah, I’m gonna go do that.”
Consider it being waist-deep in having fun.
