Allmendinger back behind Cup wheel
He’ll race Sunday on road course
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — AJ Allmendinger is back, racing for wins this time, and eager to help young Kaulig Racing reach the big show.
Allmendinger will run his first Cup race since the 2018 season finale in Kaulig’s first Cup race not at a superspeedway. The team last week made its second Daytona 500 — a critical first step in trying to become a full-time Cup team — and now its dusted off Allmendinger to take another shot Sunday on Daytona’s road
course.
Allmendinger is a ringer with 15 appearances in the Rolex 24 sports car race in Daytona. Nearly everyone else? The bulk of the Cup field ran it for the first time in August, when the pandemic pushed Daytona’s winding 14-turn, 3.61-mile circuit onto the calendar for the first time.
His familiarity with Daytona made Allmendinger the smart pick for Matt Kaulig to take another step forward. NASCAR added Sunday’s road course race to the schedule in December and Kaulig persuaded his “trophy hunter” Allmendinger to help pull the team to the top level.
“I am pumped to be racing in the Cup Series for Kaulig Racing,” Allmendinger said.
Allmendinger was weary of the grind when he lost his job at the end of 2018. He had no desire to drive for mediocre teams just to have a seat.
He planned to do television work and maybe moonlight for team owners he considers friends. Kaulig kept Allmendinger engaged in 2019 by giving him quality cars that could win in five Xfinity races. The program swelled to 11 races last season and the “Trophy Hunter” had three victories in 16 starts.
Allmendinger was helping Kaulig grow a program. The team started in 2016 and this season Allmendinger will run full time for the Xfinity championship as one of three Kaulig contenders. Allmendinger also will drive select Cup races as part of Kaulig’s development.
Having a central role in Kaulig’s push to the top has made NASCAR enjoyable again for Allmendinger. He remembered last week when Kaz Grala made his first Daytona 500 start just how special the sport had once been to him.
“I was standing next to Kaz by the car during driver intros and I think veterans sometimes, we lose sight of how big the 500 is,” Allmendinger said. “When you are just standing there and you see somebody who has made his first 500, his eyes lit up — it made me feel good.”
XFINITY SERIES: Also on Daytona’s road course, Joe Gibbs celebrated his first NASCAR victory as a grandfather, watching from the pits as 18-year-old Ty Gibbs won his Series debut Saturday. It was the very first NASCAR national series race for Ty Gibbs, who jumped two steps from ARCA to Xfinity for his debut. He plowed through the field on a pair of restarts to beat reigning Series champion Austin Cindric in double overtime. Gibbs became the youngest driver to win an Xfinity road course race at 18 years, 4 months, 16 days.
Joe Gibbs, a member of the NASCAR and Pro Football Hall of Fames, watched stoically from behind the pit stand. Shielded by a mask, he gave no indication of emotion. But as his grandson crossed the finish line, his glasses fogged and he hugged a Joe Gibbs Racing team member.
Ty Gibbs won eight ARCA races the last two seasons, and finally old enough to run at the national level, his grandfather gave him a shot at NASCAR’s secondtier series.