AJ Allmendinger, driver of the No. 16 Celsius Chevrolet, and Chris Rice, president of Kaulig Racing. … [+]
AJ Allmendinger didn’t know if he’d ever visit victory lane in the Nascar Cup Series again.
At 41, the racing journeyman doesn’t take anything for granted. He’s blessed to have experienced racing’s highest of highs and lowest of lows across multiple disciplines. The trials and tribulations have led him to shed tears when he wins a race, whether it be in Cup or the Xfinity Series. Nothing is a guarantee, Allmendinger explained.
When Allmendinger captured the trophy at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval in early October, he cried tears of joy. It was a rare moment to see a professional athlete shed tears on national TV. The tears were real.
“I wear my emotions on my sleeves,” Allmendinger said. “The companies that become a part of Kaulig Racing and specifically ones on my racecar know who I am and how I’m going to be. I try to show my appreciation to them for giving me these opportunities because in Nascar — in open-wheel I had great success — I spent a lot of years not winning races.
“It’s real. You don’t know when your last win is. I celebrate it like it’s my last win. I’m going to keep doing that.”
Kaulig Racing’s No. 16 Celsius Chervolet dominated the second half of that race, leading 46 of 109 laps. It was his first victory at the Cup level since 2021 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course when Kaulig was running a partial schedule.
“You don’t get many opportunities to win races,” Allmendinger said. “It’s so difficult to give yourself an opportunity, execute and do everything perfectly. I put a lot of that pressure on my shoulders for our race team. If we’re struggling, I feel like I’m letting them down. It’s a lot of inner struggles when we’re not running well.”
For Celsius, it’s the energy drink brand’s second win with Allmendinger, but the company’s first at the Cup level. The first came earlier this season at Circuit of the Americas in the Xfinity Series. Celsius first partnered with Allmendinger in 2020.
“Celsius is a company with a lot of similarities to Kaulig Racing,” he said. “It’s growing. This partnership has developed a lot since 2019 and 2020. It’s cool, as an organization, when you find a company like Celsius where you can grow together.”
The victory was an important triumph for Kaulig and Allmendinger. The team was off to start the year, and it’s been a catch-up year as the Next Gen car develops. Last year, Kaulig was relatively close to the major teams since there wasn’t much time to develop their cars.
Before the win, Allmendinger had a pair of top fives and five top 10s. He’s experienced plenty of misfortune in 2023, but remains positive given that Kaulig’s cars have speed to run 20th on a bad week.
Allmendinger has bounced around from team-to-team throughout his career. Red Bull Racing centered its new NASCAR team around him in the late 2000s before making the move to Richard Petty Motorsports. Then, he found what he thought to be his best opportunity at Team Penske, but it didn’t last a full season. Opportunities at Phoenix Racing and JTG Daugherty Racing, replacing 2000 Cup champion Bobby Labonte, is where he got his career back on track, winning his first Cup race in 2014.
Though Allmendinger stepped away from racing to focus on his budding career as a Nascar analyst for NBC Sports in 2019, Kaulig team president Chris Rice recruited the road course ace to run five Xfinity Series races and make the team better. He won in the No. 10 car at the Charlotte Roval in a heavy downpour, which was his first Nascar win in six years.
Kaulig convinced Allmendinger to consider competing more in 2020, and he ran 11 Xfinity Series events. With two wins in that span, everyone knew Allmendinger could compete for a championship if he ran the whole season. He did so in 2021 and 2022, tallying 10 victories in those two seasons and finishing fourth and fifth in the standings, respectively. He bagged both regular season championships.
“Some people say, ‘Don’t let the highs get too high and don’t let the lows get too low,’ and I say, ‘Screw that — my lows have been really low — we’re going to let the highs get really high,’” Allmendinger said of his success of the last few years.
Now, Allmendinger is determining his future with Kaulig. The team says its driver lineup is set for 2024 on the Cup side, but haven’t publicly commented on who will drive the team’s No. 16 entry. It’s possible that Allmendinger returns to the Xfinity Series, as he will compete wherever the team wants him to run.
One thing is for sure, Allmendinger said, and that is he will retire with Kaulig Racing.
“I’m at a time in my life where I know this is probably the last team I will drive for,” he said. “Matt and Chris have allowed me to be a part of this team when it comes to decision making and the information that they tell me, which is probably more than they need to let me know. Together, we’ve had a lot of success.
“When it comes to tough decisions like what series and what car I’m going to be in, I’m going to do whatever they say and be OK with it.”