A.J. Allmendinger is always a man to beat when NASCAR races on a road course. On Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s infield road course, he proved that.
After being challenged several times by William Byron over the final 10 laps, Allmendinger stayed cool under fire to cross the finish line some three car lengths ahead of Byron to score his first NASCAR Cup Series win of the season.
It was an emotional victory for the 41-year-old Los Gatos, California native, who last won a series race August 15, 2021 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway infield road course.
“Because you don’t know when you’re going to do it again,” Allmendinger said when asked why it was such an emotional win. “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 (son) 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.”
It marks the third career series win for Allmendinger, and his first on the Charlotte layout in the NCS series, while he has won four times on the circuit in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
It also marks the first win of the season for Kaulig Racing, who is in its second full season of NCS competition.
“This is why you do it,” Allmendinger said. “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.”
The win also makes Allmendinger the first non-Playoff driver to score a win in the Playoffs this season.
Allmendinger moved to the point for the first time on lap 58 of the 109 lap race after battling side-by-side with Kyle Busch, taking the lead in the backstretch chicane.
Allmendinger surrendered the lead to make a pit stop under green flag conditions on lap 72. He would regain the lead when a caution flew on lap 74, bringing then leader Ryan Blaney to pit road.
Allmendinger held control the res to the way, although he came under fire on subsequent restarts from Ty Gibbs and Busch.
The final caution of the day flew with 13 laps to go when a fire on Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.’s car brought him to a halt on the track.
With 10 laps to go, Allmendinger had to battle with Busch, as the two made contact as they fought for the lead. Allmendinger came away with the spot, as Byron moved around Busch to take second.
Byron tried time and again to get a line on Allmendinger, closing several times on Allmendinger’s back bumper. But Allmendinger held the measure, coming away with the victory.
“I hate crying right now, but it’s a freaking Cup race, man,” said Allmendinger, who led a race high 46 laps. “You don’t know when it’s ever going to happen again.”
While Allmendinger had a lot of celebrate about, things were more subdued for the four drivers who failed to make the cut to the next stage of the Playoffs, as Busch, Ross Chastain, Bubba Wallace, and Brad Keselowski saw their title hopes come to an end.
Busch came into Sunday needing nothing less than a win to make the cut. He led six laps on the day, and was battling for the win at the end of the day, but came up short with a third place finish.
“The first two weeks of this round was obviously not very good, and we didn’t score any points,” Busch said. “That’s where it’s at. That’s where it lies. Texas, Talladega, just not being able to execute and do a good job when points were on the line.
“It sucks to be out this early, but let us do Texas over again, and I feel like we’re right there. We’re ready.”
Chastain had to battle back after being caught up in an incident that included Brad Keselowski, and finished 10th on the day.
“We knew coming in that it was going to be tough,” said Chastain. “We put together a heck of a day for us on road courses this year in this No. 1 Worldwide Express Chevy. Lately, we’ve just been lacking speed and I can’t get over the curbs. There’s a lot of reasons.”
Wallace came into the day with high hopes, but he got caught up in a late race incident when Austin Cindric spun after contact with Daniel Suarez. Wallace had been running 11th, but plummeted to the back of the field. In the end, he recovered to finish 16th.
“I’m not mad. I’m happy for the team,” Wallace said. “I’m pumped for our season. It’s not over yet. I’m really excited for next week and Homestead and Martinsville. Phoenix, eh, I might just go on vacation. But we’ve still got four races to go out and do it. I’m proud of the team so I appreciate them.”
After suffering a pass through penalty for cutting the front stretch chicane, Keselowski had a spin later in the going, and finished 18th.
“It’s not the day we wanted for sure, but we’ve got a lot to be proud of,” said Keselowski. “We kept clawing and it just wasn’t enough today. I felt like I could have done a few things better and obviously it’s frustrating when you don’t advance and you don’t get what you want out of the day, but we’ve got a lot of great things going on and we’ll learn from it and come back stronger.”
Meanwhile, Byron, Martin Truex, Jr., Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Chris Buescher, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell and Ryan Blaney made the cut, and will open up the next round of the Playoffs next weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Of the drivers who move on to the Round of 8, Hamlin had the roughest day. His woes started on lap 71, when Michael McDowell, who was suffering power steering issues, got into the frontstretch wall. That caused Martin Truex, Jr. to slow, with Hamlin spinning behind him. Hamlin’s car was undamaged, and he continued on.
But trouble came again in almost the same spot two laps later, when Hamlin spun in the frontstretch chicane, and was hit by the oncoming car of Mike Rockenfeller. That left Hamlin’s Toyota with a broken toe link on the right rear, which led to him retiring the car for the day. He was credited with a 37th place finish.
The good news for Hamlin was, based on the segment points earned earlier in the day, Hamlin was already locked into the Round of 8.
“Just spun out and then got hit and knocked a toe link in. That’s about it,” Hamlin said.
Byron finished in second on Sunday, with Busch in third, Ty Gibbs in fourth, and Joey Logano in fifth.
Reddick, Buescher, Alex Bowman, Dawsonville, Georgia’s Chase Elliott, and Chastain rounded out the top 10.
NASCAR Cup Series
Charlotte Motor Speedway – Concord, NC
Bank of America ROVAL 400 – October 8, 2023
1. (6) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 109.
2. (14) William Byron (P), Chevrolet, 109.
3. (5) Kyle Busch (P), Chevrolet, 109.
4. (10) Ty Gibbs #, Toyota, 109.
5. (7) Joey Logano, Ford, 109.
6. (1) Tyler Reddick (P), Toyota, 109.
7. (20) Chris Buescher (P), Ford, 109.
8. (16) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 109.
9. (8) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 109.
10. (12) Ross Chastain (P), Chevrolet, 109.
11. (18) Ryan Preece, Ford, 109.
12. (17) Ryan Blaney (P), Ford, 109.
13. (36) Kyle Larson (P), Chevrolet, 109.
14. (15) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 109.
15. (2) Christopher Bell (P), Toyota, 109.
16. (4) Bubba Wallace (P), Toyota, 109.
17. (24) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 109.
18. (19) Brad Keselowski (P), Ford, 109.
19. (22) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 109.
20. (11) Martin Truex, Jr. (P), Toyota, 109.
21. (21) Aric Almirola, Ford, 109.
22. (25) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 109.
23. (32) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 109.
24. (31) Harrison Burton, Ford, 109.
25. (29) Austin Cindric, Ford, 109.
26. (28) Josh Bilicki(i), Chevrolet, 109.
27. (33) Austin Hill(i), Chevrolet, 109.
28. (30) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 109.
29. (26) Mike Rockenfeller, Chevrolet, 109.
30. (34) Zane Smith(i), Ford, 109.
31. (37) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 109.
32. (13) Michael McDowell, Ford, 109.
33. (3) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 109.
34. (27) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Chevrolet, Electrical, 96.
35. (35) Andy Lally(i), Ford, Accident, 84.
36. (23) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, Accident, 79.
37. (9) Denny Hamlin (P), Toyota, DVP, 76.
Average Speed: 81.596 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 5 Mins, 57 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.666 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 7 for 18 laps.
Lead Changes: 7 among 6 drivers.
Lap Leaders: T. Reddick (P) 1-27;C. Bell (P) 28-35;C. Elliott (P) 36-50;C. Bell (P) 51;K. Busch (P) 52-57;A. Allmendinger 58-70;R. Blaney (P) 71-76;A. Allmendinger 77-109.
Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) AJ Allmendinger 2 times for 46 laps; Tyler Reddick (P) 1time for 27 laps; Chase Elliott (P) 1 time for 15 laps; Christopher Bell (P) 2 times for 9 laps; Kyle Busch(P) 1 time for 6 laps; Ryan Blaney (P) 1 time for 6 laps.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 45,23,1,19,20,99,9,8,54,16
Stage #2 Top Ten: 9,20,11,45,5,1,23,19,34,8
Playoff Standings: 1. William Byron – 4,041 (6 Wins); 2. Martin Truex, Jr. – 4,036 (3 Wins); 3. Denny Hamlin – 4,032 (3 Wins); 4. Kyle Larson – 4,024 (3 Wins); 5. Chris Buescher – 4,021 (3 Wins); 6. Tyler Reddick – 4,016 (2 Wins); 7. Christopher Bell – 4,016 (1 Win); 8. Ryan Blaney – 4,014 (1 Win).
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
