A.J. Allmendinger has had an excellent week after his first triumph at a superspeedway came last Saturday when he won the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega. He was promoted to a full-time Cup Series schedule in 2023 four days later by Kaulig Racing.
Allmendinger beat Ty Gibbs to win the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval victory three days later, making him the first driver to win double-digit road courses at the Xfinity level. Since making his maiden start at the Roval in 2019, he has gone 4-for-4 and has never lost an Xfinity race there.
He now has twelve total national series road course victories, plus three more in 2022 at COTA, Portland, and Indianapolis. His twelve victories in the Cup Series are added to his two from the national series.
Allmendinger led twenty-five of the seventy-two laps he led to win Stage #1, making him the clear favorite from the outset. Sheldon Creed was Gibbs’ toughest opponent until the latter was hit by Sage Karam on lap 60.
“We got that one… we stole that one,” yelled Allmendinger, who had just completed the 2.32-mile, 17-turn road course by spinning his car during a celebratory burnout.
“It’s unbelievable,” Allmendinger, who won for the fourth time in four starts at the Charlotte Roval added. “Ty was really good there at the end, and I didn’t know if I was going to be able to get him. I knew if I could just get to one restart on the outside of him, at least we’d have a chance.”
“I was wanting it pretty bad there, I didn’t think we had a shot, but I’m always going to put it on my back when it’s time to go. We got that one. We stole that one!”
“I drove it in as deep as I could [on the final restart], probably used Ty up just a little bit, but I’d expect the same if the roles were reversed.”
Riley Herbst spun twice, forcing two restarts, and bringing out the caution on the penultimate lap to force overtime, all of which eliminated him from the playoffs.
“We got in the wall a little bit there on both of the restarts and never could get back to the #16 (Allmendinger),” said Gibbs.
“We had great speed. I just want to thank my team. I had a great time in the race today and happy that we’re moving onto the round of eight.”
Allmendinger’s victory at Talladega last Saturday had already guaranteed him a berth in the Playoffs’ Round of 8. The same was evident for Noah Gragson, who came in third after winning his fourth straight race at Texas Motor Speedway a week earlier.
By coming in second to Allmendinger on the opening stage of the race on Saturday, Gibbs guaranteed his place in the Round of 8. Brandon Jones, who finished seventh in the race and won the final position by two points over Ryan Sieg, joined Justin Allgaier, Josh Berry, Sam Mayer, Austin Hill, and other competitors in moving on to the next stage.
The Championship 4 race at Phoenix Raceway will feature a positional battle between all four JR Motorsports drivers: Grayson, Allgaier, Berry, and Mayer.
Sieg was also ousted from the playoffs, along with Riley Herbst, Jeremy Clements, and reigning series champion Daniel Hemric.
Hemric finished third in qualifying but slammed the outside barrier on lap three between Turns 5 and 6. Despite coming back to place 17th, he lost the round against Jones by 11 points due to contact from Sieg during a late restart.
James Davison, a specialist on road courses, came in fourth, ahead of Allgaier, Alex Labbe, Jones, Berry, Sieg, and Landon Cassill.
