Allmendinger beats and bangs to COTA Xfinity victory

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emailBy Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service | March 25, 2023 8:41 PM ET

A.J. Allmendinger started on pole position and won the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ Pit Boss 250 presented by USA Today on Saturday afternoon on the Circuit of The Americas road course.

The 46 laps in between the green and checkered flags, however, were dramatic and full of emotional highs and lows for the veteran Allmendinger, who led 14 laps to start the race and the final 14 laps to close it out. The series’ all-time road course winner earned his 11th road course trophy (and 16th career Xfinity Series trophy) despite having to navigate through the field after falling back to 25th place during mid-race green flag pit stops.


It was a major league road course lesson for the rest of the field as the 41-year-old Californian diced and sliced his way forward in the No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet to win this race for the second consecutive year. He ultimately took a 0.853s victory over relentless Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron in the No. 17 Chevrolet.

“William Byron put his best foot forward, you’ve seen all the Cup races he’s winning,” Allmendinger said of the season’s two-race winner Byron. “I knew it was going to be tough just trying to fight to get back up to the front there. Hate that I had contact with Sheldon (Creed), he got under me, I was trying to stay off him, so I hate that happened but so proud of everyone at Kaulig Racing. The Celsius Chevy was really hooked up and with all the damage we had it didn’t hurt the car.

“I spent a lot of years not winning anything so I’m going to celebrate every one of them like it’s my last one,” Allmendinger said. “You never know. As much pressure as I put on myself, I’m always going to try to live up to it. The pit crew was awesome and I’m so proud of everyone.”

NASCAR Cup Series rookie Ty Gibbs – the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion – finished third in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota, just ahead of his JGR teammate Sammy Smith and veteran JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier.

The 3.41-mile, 20-turn COTA track is regarded as one of the more challenging stops on the NASCAR schedule and Allmendinger certainly had his work cut out for him on Saturday. He led early, but was shuffled back after winning Stage 1 and gambling on a pit stop later than the other frontrunners.

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Forced to lineup for a re-start toward the back of the field – and miscommunication from the team to driver regarding the exact position he should take – left him 25th near the race midpoint. He answered by reeling off one car after another and made his way into the top-10 with 15 laps remaining – making a dramatic push forward on that final restart to go from sixth to first with 14 laps remaining. He took the lead after a spirited battle with Sheldon Creed, who spun out after contact between the two.

Allmendinger then drove off to more than a 1s gap on the field, but, was doggedly chased by Byron, who will start Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at COTA from the pole position.

“I was getting one final run at him, but obviously they were really good all day, just great at these road courses,” Byron said. “Just a little bit to gain and then made a mistake (navigating the esses).

“It was a great effort, just need to clean it up in the cars…but had a lot of fun racing,” Byron added.

Kaulig Racing’s Daniel Hemric, JR Motorsports teammates Sam Mayer and Josh Berry, Creed and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Riley Herbst rounded out the top 10.

Austin Hill, a three-race winner in 2023 that was leading the championship standings by nearly 50 points coming into Austin, suffered mechanical problems in his No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet and took a DNF. He still holds a 15-point advantage over Herbst atop the championship, however.

This was a Dash 4 Cash qualifying race with the four top-finishing full-time NASCAR Xfinity Series competitors now eligible for a $100,000 bonus next week at Richmond (Va.) Raceway; the top finisher among the four will earn the big paycheck and is eligible for another the following race at Martinsville, Va. on April 15.

With their showings on Saturday: Sammy Smith, Justin Allgaier, Daniel Hemric and Sam Mayer are the four drivers who race for the Xfinity Dash 4 Cash $100,000 in next week’s Call811 Before You Dig 250 at Richmond Raceway (1 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

 

Reddick leads the way in COTA NASCAR Cup practice

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | March 24, 2023 4:03 PM ET

Tyler Reddick was fastest in the lone NASCAR Cup Series practice session held Friday at Circuit of The Americas with a lap of 92.989mph (2m12.016s).

Reddick won on two road courses last season at Road America and Indianapolis.


Kyle Larson, another road course winner, was second fastest in COTA practice, clocking in at 92.618 mph.

Ross Chastain was third fastest in practice at 92.52 mph. Chastain started the weekend off by tossing a watermelon off the COTA Tower as the defending race winner. It was Chastain’s first career win in the Cup Series.


Kyle Busch was fourth fastest at 92.498 mph and Daniel Suarez was fifth fastest at 92.461 mph.

Michael McDowell was sixth fastest at 92.458 mph, Austin Cindric was seventh fastest at 92.441 mph, and Bubba Wallace was eighth fastest at 92.433 mph. Joey Logano was ninth fastest at 92.407 mph and Jordan Taylor was 10th fastest at 92.404 mph. Taylor is driving the No. 9 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports this weekend as Chase Elliott continues to recover from a snowboarding accident.


It was something of a slow start for the other road racing guest stars, though. Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button was 28th fastest in practice. Button, driving the No. 15 for Rick Ware Racing, ran a fast lap of 91.758 mph. Fellow F1 champ Kimi Raikkonen, making his second start with Trackhouse Racing, was 32nd fastest at 91.388 mph.

Back in the No. 84 for Legacy Motor Club, Jimmie Johnson was 34th fastest in practice. Johnson clocked in at 91.072 mph.

There were no major incidents in practice.

The extended practice was allotted as teams work with the new aero package being used on select short tracks and road courses this season, and COTA is the first road course race of the season.

 

Byron takes NASCAR Cup pole at COTA...now put it back!

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | March 25, 2023 1:23 PM ET

William Byron is becoming a betting favorite for the pole on a NASCAR Cup Series road course after grabbing another one at Circuit of The Americas.

Byron earned the top spot for Sunday’s race with a lap of 93.882mph (2m10.76s). While it is his first pole at COTA, it is the fourth road course pole for Byron. And he is the first driver in the Cup Series to win a pole on four different road courses (Charlotte 2019; Road America 2021; Indianapolis 2021).

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“It’s been an up and down weekend; the Cup car, we definitely had a little bit of work to do yesterday on overall balance and grip in some areas and then me as a driver,” Byron said. “When I talked overnight (with the team) we felt maybe there were three-tenths on my end and on the car’s end. We were able to close that gap today a little bit and put both together.

“It’s good to get the pole, but tomorrow is what matters. There is a lot of work to do. A lot of physical work to do in the (Xfinity Series) race later today, and then tomorrow is going to be tough. Excited for it, and hopefully we can prepare throughout today and go into tomorrow.”

Byron will be joined on the front row by Tyler Reddick. Reddick, who was fastest in practice and fastest from the second group of drivers in qualifying, ran a lap of 93.783mph in the final round.

Austin Cindric qualified third at 93.459mph with Jordan Taylor qualified fourth at 93.174mph. IMSA veteran Taylor is making his NASCAR Cup Series debut driving the No. 9 for Hendrick Motorsports in-place of the injured Chase Elliott.

Daniel Suarez qualified fifth at 93.067mph ahead of Alex Bowman in sixth at 93.911mph and AJ Allmendinger in seventh at 92.840mph.

Erik Jones qualified eighth at 92.838mph, with Kyle Busch ninth at 92.678mph, and Noah Gragson qualified 10th at 92.188. It is the first time both Legacy Motor Club drivers made the final round of qualifying in the same session. Defending race winner Ross Chastain qualified 12th, his fastest lap was 93.310mph.

Kimi Raikkonen qualified 22nd and Jenson Button was 24th. Jimmie Johnson qualified 31st.

 

Be careful what you wish for - Cup drivers on COTA's new unknowns

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | March 24, 2023 6:55 PM ET

Denny Hamlin issued a classic “be careful what you wish for” Friday after NASCAR Cup Series practice at Circuit of The Americas.

For the first time in seven years, NASCAR officials will not throw a caution flag at the end of the stage breaks this weekend. The industry has talked about doing away with those cautions for a few seasons, the criticism being that stages eliminated strategy and made the road course racing a bit predictable.

Now that the race can unfold organically, another liberal term, the question becomes: What will Sunday bring?

“I think we got pressured into this one,” Hamlin said. “I think this one has the potential to get really strung out – a lot. If we do, I don’t want to hear any complaining about (it)…

“Certainly (for) road courses, this will make for more strategy, but if you are 10s behind the car in front of you and (another car is) 10s behind you, strategy is not going to matter a ton.”

Joey Logano said there is a possibility for the race to go without a caution, as the Cup race at Road America did last year (save for its stage breaks). He doesn’t see that being the case in Austin, though.

“I’ll probably eat my words on this — there is not a whole bunch of things to hit,” Logano said of the 20-turn, 3.41-mile Texas circuit. “They did a great job building this racetrack to where you can spin out…without hitting anything. There is a lot of runoff and extra pavement out there and all that. It’s really nice for those reasons.

“It can (go caution free). I doubt it will. It’ll be interesting if it does and (seeing) how the strategy will play out. I think there is a couple of ways you can play the race. We’ll wait and see.”

Another unknown, at least regarding the racing product, is the aero package. COTA is the first road course where teams will use the new rules package which includes a short spoiler and adjustments to the diffuser and engine.

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“Slick” was the word drivers used to describe how it felt in practice. Martin Truex Jr. believes the lack of grip and drivers sliding around could mean more passing. Christopher Bell said the track felt like an ice-skating rink ........before he went over and threw up in a trash can.

“Typically you look at places like Darlington or Richmond, Homestead even — tracks that are very slick — and it seems like guys are focused a little bit more on what they’re doing, and we see less yellows,” said Bell. “So, the potential for a green-to-checkered race is definitely there.”

What is certain is how the lack of two predetermined cautions will change how teams and drivers approach the race. Multiple drivers were quick to mention that a choice no longer has to be made between bagging points or trying to win the race.

“It’s going to be pitting the race backward and that kind of stuff,” Ryan Blaney said. “It’s something we’ve been talking about for a year or two between the drivers and NASCAR because stage breaks at road courses can jumble things up so much and it gets messy. Obviously you’re going to pit without going a lap down, so you’ve got the top five or eight fastest cars on the racetrack who think they can win — yeah, they’re not going to get stage points, and so they give up all those usually through the day, but it lines them up to win the race.

“But then sometimes you have guys who stay out and get the points who are not as good, but then you restart in the back. I think it’s going to clean it up a little bit. I think it’s right for road courses, personally. We’ll find out.”

After practice, Hamlin made a mental note about what he, as the driver, will need to do for Sunday.

“I said to myself coming in after practice that I better stay hydrated on this one,” Hamlin said. “It’s going to definitely be tough physically if it stays green.”

He also echoed what Austin Cindric said earlier this week about COTA being a physically demanding track.

“It definitely is, for sure,” he said. “It’s got some technical parts. It’s got long straightaways. You have to hit your marks everywhere around this racetrack, or else time really can compound. So, agree with that.”

Logano isn’t worried about not being able to go the distance but thinks drivers are going to feel the difference in not having two expected cautions.

“The cars are hot,” the 2022 champ said. “I guess if you’re not in shape and not ready for it and not prepared, you probably shouldn’t go drinking the night before the race.

 

Busch leaves Texas with grace after COTA second place

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | March 26, 2023 9:12 PM ET

Kyle Busch is an all-or-nothing driver in the NASCAR Cup Series, but he gladly took a second-place finish Sunday at Circuit of The Americas.

The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion put a lot of work into having the type of result he earned. Entering the first road course race of the season, Busch said with all the simulator work and preparation he and his Richard Childress Racing team had done, if they didn’t win, he wasn’t sure what else to do.

The No. 8 was best in class behind race winner Tyler Reddick, who had been the fastest driver all weekend. Second was a respectable ending to an up-and-down day where the RCR team fell behind on pit strategy, leaving Busch fighting on older tires through multiple overtime restarts.

“Oh, no question, yeah, for sure,” said Busch of it being the best-case scenario result given the series of events. “Reddick, when we tested here, was super, super, fast. He was the best car here when we tested, and he just didn’t have the long-run speed, but then they went to work and figured out the long-run speed to go with the front-side speed.

“So we just didn’t find enough front-side speed to be able to contend with those guys. But he’s a really good road racer; he’s proven the last couple of years winning road races. So (it’s) cool to come home second and get a good one here.”

The EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix needed three overtime attempts to decide the winner. Busch restarted inside the top five in each of them, also making it through what had been a wild and chaos-filled Turn 1 on each restart attempt all afternoon to stay in contention.

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On the final overtime restart, Busch, who was running second, chose to restart on the inside lane. It put him third in the running order behind leader Reddick.

“I got plenty of help from behind and about ran over Reddick and pushed him off,” Busch said. “But just a lot of bumping and shoving and banging there up in the first turn, so you just try to get through there as best you can and then go race it after that. The No. 48 (Alex Bowman) got in front of me — got in between us — and then once I got by him, Reddick was gone. But I didn’t have enough to contend with him anyway.

“I had to get by (Reddick) off of Turn 1 or through Turn 2 before we got to the esses to have a shot to beat him. But he was so strong in all the braking zones and everywhere that I think he would have got back by me. All in all, just a great day for us. Good to come home second.

“Our Netspend Camaro was fast. It’s really good to bring home a runner-up finish for Netspend, being a local Austin, Texas partner.”

Although there were no stage breaks, the race had its fill of bunching the field back together. Busch said Sunday didn’t feel much different playing out organically because of how many cautions broke out at the end.

“Once you get one, you’re bound to get a lot,” he said. “That first one that came, I think we were running fourth, and I was like, ‘Ah, I’ll take a fourth, let’s just get out of here.’ And then we were able to get up to second, so we got a couple of spots on some of those restarts.”

 

Button on NASCAR debut: “It was an emotional rollercoaster”

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | March 27, 2023 7:41 AM ET

Jenson Button was completely worn out after Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race but went the distance to earn a top-20 finish in his debut.

“It was an emotional rollercoaster,” Button said. “First, it was terrible. I mean, I must’ve been last by the end of it, and I was just like, ‘Everyone: Go. I just need to drive and find a rhythm.’ I’ve never gone through a corner too wide so often. And trying to place my car in the right place – I just got it wrong every time.

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“Normally, if you’re a little bit slow through a corner, nobody tries to overtake you from the outside. Because they’re not going to make it all the way on the next one. But here they do because they get a wheel inside for the next one, and if you turn in, you turn around.”

Button finished 18th after qualifying 24th in the No. 15 Rick Ware Racing Ford. In his first of three starts this season, Button stayed on the lead lap and shuffled up and down the leaderboard all afternoon. He ran as high as 15th.

“The first stint was really bad – it was embarrassing for me,” said Button. “I was like, ‘All right guys, we need to pit, freshen the tires and I need some air – I need some fresh air.’ I got that. The pace was good, consistency was good. I was really happy and passed a few cars which was nice.

“We got a little bit unlucky with the safety car because it was just two laps before our window. Pitted, then the next stint was mayhem. We also made a couple of changes that just didn’t work. Big oversteer – went from the car feeling great to really difficult to drive. I also had a massive whack from Kimi [Räikkönen], and it fell off after that. The car wasn’t quite right.”

After two quick cautions in the first 13 laps, the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix had a long green flag run through the end of the first stage and into the final stage. With over two-minute laps around the 3.41-mile, 20-turn course, many drivers were left feeling the effects of a long day in hot cars and working through multiple green flag pit cycles.

But there were six cautions in the final 31 laps. And it came down to Button having to fight through three overtime restarts before seeing the checkered flag.

“Every time I turned in, the rear tires would chatter, then immediately to oversteer,” Button said. “It was really difficult, but towards the end, we made some good calls stopping and putting on fresh tires. I enjoyed the last three restarts – got good placement and good overtaking moves from the outside. (We) finished 18th after almost stopping because I had heat exhaustion.

“It was so hot; I don’t have a fan in my seat which really didn’t help me too much. It was so hot, I thought I was going to faint in the car. So, I stopped twice for a minute. They put ice on me, gave me loads of water, and I went back out.

“I was so close to getting out of the car because I thought I was going to faint. I must’ve drank eight, nine bottles of water during the race. The team kept me calm, and it’s the reason why we got a good result in the end. So, I was happy.”

Button returns to the NASCAR Cup Series in early July for the inaugural street course race in Chicago.

 

'It was the hardest I've worked in a race car' - Byron fifth at COTA

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | March 26, 2023 9:34 PM ET

William Byron had about as good a day a driver can without claiming the win as he started from the pole, led laps, won a stage, and finished fifth at Circuit of The Americas, yet he said the day was “hard as hell.”

Without the stoppage of stage breaks, the race played out organically and, for much of the afternoon, saw long green flag runs and green flag pit cycles. But then a rash of cautions – six to be exact – broke out and turned the proceedings into a stop-and-go affair with incidents all over the place, debris littering the circuit, and wild restarts.

Sunday’s race went into multiple overtime attempts.

“It was hard as hell,” Byron said. “It was the hardest I’ve worked in a race car, I think. Honestly, not the hardest I’ve worked but just the amount of heat and the amount of (carbon monoxide) or whatever it is in the cars.

“It was definitely tough to deal with. By lap 25 I was just praying for a second wind. Luckily it came. That’s why you train, I guess. I don’t know if I’m that much better than everybody else, but I feel fine.”

Byron would have felt better leaving with the win, but like the rest of the field, had nothing for Tyler Reddick. The two drivers had the field covered, combining to lead 69 of the race’s 75 laps.

The No. 24 won the first stage. Reddick won the second stage. The two also waged a clean and thrilling battle for the lead in the final stage. Byron lost the lead for good with 22 laps to go and spent the remainder of the event fighting to survive on the restarts.

Going into the final overtime attempt, he lined up fifth, but he was never able to make it back to Reddick to fight for the win.

“He just had the lead and I didn’t. He was better,” Byron said of the difference at the end of the day. “When we got that run with nine laps to go, he was able to pass me clean and gap me. I did a lot of blocking, a lot of protecting under braking, but he was just better.

“I think he had a little more grip than us, a little bit more lateral grip, and that’s what it takes on the road courses – being able to hustle the car a little bit more. He was still free and sideways but had grip doing it. So that’s part of racing. Good to come home top five here at COTA; we had a great weekend. We’ll take it.”

 

Reddick outbrakes the field for first win with 23XI at COTA

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emailBy Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service | March 26, 2023 8:42 PM ET

Tyler Reddick prevailed in three overtime restarts to claim his first trophy of the year – and first with his new team, 23XI Racing — with a 1.411s victory over two-time series champion Kyle Busch in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, the NASCAR Cup Series’ first road course race of the season.

It was a field of international champions and NASCAR’s very best at the Circuit of The Americas course, but for most of the race the outcome looked to be decided in a good ole Texas duel between the two fastest cars all weekend driven by Reddick and Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron. The pair exchanged the lead, lap after exciting lap for most of the afternoon.

On the final two-lap restart, Reddick was able to put his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota out front exiting Turn 1 — a tight left-hander — and power forward to the lead, while Busch and third-place finisher Alex Bowman, fourth-place finisher – and defending race winner — Ross Chastain and fifth-place Byron fought door-to-door, bumper-to-bumper as they chased after him.


“I’ve been wanting to win here in a Cup car for a long time,” the 27-year-old Californian Reddick said, now having four NASCAR Cup Series wins, but noted this was his first as a Toyota driver and with his 23XI Racing Team – co-owned by fellow competitor Denny Hamlin and NBA superstar Michael Jordan.

“It means the world,” said Reddick, who sat down on the track and leaned against his car with a bag of ice to cool down on the typically Texas-hot afternoon. “This whole 23XI team has been working hard all winter long to make the road course program better and was extremely motivated to come in here and improve performance. Just so proud of this Monster Energy team and TRD. All the resources they’ve put in to turn around the road course program means a lot.”

As often happens late in a road course race, patience lags and urgency increases. That was certainly the case Sunday with three different overtime restarts deciding the outcome. Reddick and Byron’s No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet combined to lead 69 of the race’s 75 laps with Reddick out front a race-best 41 of those, most of them after hard-fought challenges and back-and-forth corner after corner with polesitter Byron.

“It feels good to get a top five, but we had a top-two race car really with the No. 45. He was really better than everybody, but I thought we were a close second,” said Byron, a two-race winner already in 2023, whose fifth-place finish at COTA was his career best on a road course. “We’ll keep building on it.”

Busch’s runner-up effort was an impressive comeback. He had been mid-pack for most of the afternoon but gambled on fuel strategy to move forward during some late race cautions.

“Even if we were on equal tires, they were lights out,” said Busch, driver of the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

“Overall, for as much effort as we put into coming here and focusing on this place and all the testing we did in the offseason, we’re coming out of here with a good finish. Tyler’s obviously a really good road course racer.”

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In addition to the NASCAR stars, the field included four big names from other racing genres including IMSA champion Jordan Taylor, who drove the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for injured former COTA winner Chase Elliott; a pair of former Formula One champions in Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen and popular IndyCar Series regular Conor Daly.

Among these four, Button – the 2009 Formula One World Champion – claimed the top finishing position, 18th in the No. 15 Rick Ware Racing Ford. Taylor, a two-time winner at COTA in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship finished 24th but made a huge impression in his debut after qualifying fourth.

Raikkonen, the 2007 F1 World Champion from Finland, finished 29th but ran as high as fourth place late in the race. Daly only got 16 laps into the race before his team had to take his No. 50 The Money Team Racing Chevrolet behind the wall for extended repairs. He finished 36th.

Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson didn’t even get a full lap of green flag racing in only his second start of the 2023 season. The owner-driver of the No. 84 Legacy Motor Club Chevrolet was collected in a multi-car accident that eliminated his car and left him 38th in the standings.

Team Penske’s Austin Cindric, 2023 Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr., RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs and Front Row Motorsports’ Todd Gilliland rounded out the top 10.

Chastain takes over the championship lead by 19 points over Busch. Ty Gibbs, who finished ninth, continues to lead the Sunoco Rookie of the Year points standings.

The NASCAR Cup Series returns to competition next Sunday in the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

 

Allmendinger has ‘no ill feelings’ after drama-filled 2022 COTA finish

By Pat DeCola



NASCAR.com

Published: 5 days ago

4 Minute Read

The start of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season hasn’t quite gone exactly the way AJ Allmendinger was hoping. Neither did the end of last year’s race at Circuit of The Americas, when eventual race winner Ross Chastain dumped him into Alex Bowman’s No. 48 Chevrolet on the final lap to take command of the lead and ride to the checkered.

The No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet driver is determined to turn the tide on both, even if he isn’t dwelling on either.

All eyes will be on NASCAR’s resident road-course expert this weekend as he makes his 400th career Cup Series start Sunday at COTA, site of the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, Sirius XM NASCAR). Though he did go back and watch the finish “just once,” Allmendinger himself has his sights set on the road ahead, not necessarily lamenting over a missed opportunity to collect his first series win since 2021 last spring.


“Of course, it’d have been great to win the race, but it wouldn’t have changed anything if we did or we didn’t,” Allmendinger told reporters via video conference Wednesday afternoon. “You know, it’s a cool memory to have to go win the race and have that in the memory bank. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t change how I feel about this year. It would just be that I’d have three Cup wins instead of two, right? … It’s kind of in the memory bank of OK, what can we do different if we’re in that same position, but honestly, I don’t even think about last year.”

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While he may not have last year on the mind, we sure do. The 2022 COTA finish was one of the more drama-filled laps in recent NASCAR memory, with a palpable sense of tension building and building and building until finally — BAM! — Allmendinger drills the driver’s side of Bowman’s car after getting shoved by Chastain, sending the Nos. 16 and 48 careening off track.

Chastain rode to his first career Cup victory from there, issuing an unspoken statement from that point forward that he was willing to do whatever it took to take home a trophy, respected former teammate in his way or not.

The topic of Chastain and his aggressive driving style only grew over the course of the season that followed — a dialogue we’re still wading through to this day — but it left no room for Allmendinger to be upset with his past Kaulig compadre in the Xfinity Series.

“I mean, we all know how hard he can race but at the same time, we all race that hard at times, you know?” the 41-year-old explained. “I think he’s always to the extreme end of it, but I’m sure if you polled the drivers about trying to pass me it’s just a pain in the ass, right? Like, it’s part of it. So I don’t have a problem with Ross. I think it’s one of those things. … we know what he’ll do to go win the race and if the roles were reversed and that happens, then you should be OK with it. Which, honestly, I always feel like he is. So, for me, there’s no ill feelings or anything like that to Ross or anybody out there. We’re all hard racers and things like that happen and we know where we stand.

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Ross Chastain, AJ Allmendinger and Justin Haley celebrate a 2020 win at Talladega. | Getty Images“Ross, you know, he went all for it and it was OK. … We talked about it. I said OK, if the roles were reversed and that happens, then you have no room to say anything. He said ‘I completely agree.’ … I was over it after we left the race track.”

Even if Allmendinger isn’t able to make right and win Sunday’s race this time around — he finished 33rd after all of last year’s fracas — he and his Kaulig crew would settle for a solid race from flag to flag.

After landing a top-six run in the season-opening Daytona 500 in February, Allmendinger and Co. have no top 10s with a 22.5 average finish in the last four races.

A big part of why the road-course specialist elected to return to Cup full-time in 2023 was due to having so many of them — six — on the schedule.
Sunday is his time to strike and quiet any doubters.

“I mean, of course, the start of the year I wish it would be a little bit better,” said Allmendinger, currently 17th in points. ” … what I love about our race team and working with Squid (crew chief Matt Swiderski) and everybody in our organization, on the 31 (of teammate Justin Haley) and the 16, we know that we’re not where we want to be, speed-wise. But we’re all kind of head down working together to move forward and try to get better. So it’d be no different if it were Xfinity and it’s not going the way you want. It’s the way I am. I want to win races for our race team. They deserve it.”

Regardless of what happens on the results sheet Sunday, Allmendinger has echoed the sentiment emanating throughout the Kaulig franchise — they’re just here to have fun and win trophies. The former sometimes outweighs the latter, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Life’s short.

“It’s just, to me, all this … what I’m trying to do, for me in racing, you’re just trying to make great memories out of it,” Allmendinger said. “This sport is so hard sometimes and you get so down and you just hope that you have some really good memories to go with all the heartaches and defeats that go with that. So it’s just part of it.

“And that’s the way it goes.”

 

No stage breaks means new challenges for NASCAR drivers at COTA

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | March 22, 2023 5:30 PM ET

Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas brings many talking points, from it being the first road course race of the season with a new aero package, to the invasion of multiple Formula 1 superstars, Jordan Taylor driving for Hendrick Motorsports, and Jimmie Johnson making another run with his Legacy Motor Club team.

Another topic of conversation is how Sunday will be the first time in seven years NASCAR will not throw a yellow flag on a predetermined lap for a stage break. Points will still be awarded to the top 10 running drivers on those designated laps, but the race flow will not be interrupted.

Given everything on the table for Sunday, it’s the lack of those expected cautions that should be watched, says Austin Cindric.

Someone is going to fall out of the seat. That’s my prediction for the weekend,” Cindric said. “I can tell you it’s not going to be me, cause I don't drink...most of the time, but I think it’s more possible this weekend than any other weekend.”

How the lack of stage breaks opens up strategy for race teams is a variable this weekend. The expectation is that teams will no longer have to choose between going for stage points or trying to position their driver to try to win the race.

Cindric hopes not having two set cautions will give the best cars a chance to be rewarded. There will still be race strategies, but ones that develop as the race unfolds organically, sustainably, inclusively, and uh...... and the field can run under the green flag
Oh yeah and green.

But from a racing perspective, it will affect the drivers just as much. Circuit of the Americas is a purpose-built road course specifically for Formula 1 and MotoGP. At 3.4 miles and 20 turns, it’s the longest on the Cup Series schedule, and one of the toughest.

“It’s not going to be cool by any means,” Cindric said, referring to the forecast for the weekend that is consistently in the 80s. “It’s a physically challenging track; you do have the long back straightaway to rest, but I did the Goodyear tire test a couple of months ago, and two days of driving around that place knocks you around.

“It’s a bumpy racetrack. You’re using a lot of the runoff that wasn’t really meant to be driven on, so you’re getting tossed around in there, banging around, grabbing gears all the time, using your legs for braking and on top of that, they’re pretty hot race cars to drive. So, from that standpoint, I think it’ll be a pretty physical weekend, and if I didn't say how tough it was, they might think twice about what they pay me.”

NASCAR introduced stage racing in 2017, hoping to increase the action throughout the events with points on the line. It’s a procedure in effect for all three national series.

Since its implementation, there have been events where the two caution flag periods for the stage breaks were the only cautions in the race. Road America is an example from last season. Other times, the stage break caution has bunched the field back together and led to more beating and banging once they get close enough to hit each other.

Sunday, however, will be a first for Cindric.

“I personally have never done a NASCAR-sanctioned race that didn’t involve stage breaks,” said Cindric, who started his full-time NASCAR career in 2017 in the Craftsman Truck Series. “So, it’ll be new to me in that respect as far as pushing these cars for that long. If it were the last-generation (race) car, I’d probably be concerned about brakes and those long green flag runs. With this car, not so much.”