'Dinger's move comes back to haunt him at COTA
Mick Jagger may not exactly be a NASCAR fan, but the Rolling Stones front man has a lot in common with A.J. Allmendinger:
You can’t always get what you want.
Mick sings about it and 'Dinger experienced it firsthand in Sunday's NASCAR Cup race at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
The Xfinity Series regular and part-time Cup competitor was a force to be reckoned with all afternoon during Sunday’s race, and was a legitimate contender to win until Turn 18 of the final lap.
A few corners earlier, Allmendinger was breathing behind the back of race leader Ross Chastain, and in Turn 15 he bumped Chastain out of the way to take the race lead.
But Chastian fought back. In Turn 18, he hit Allmendinger's car, forcing it up the track and into the No. 48 of Alex Bowman. Chastain continued racing to his first career Cup Series win and Bowman held on for a second-place finish.
But Allmendinger’s car spun into the kitty litter while other competitors sped past. In the end, finishing a disappointing 33rd.
“At the end of the day, we all have to look ourselves in the mirror,” Allmendinger told Fox Sports following the race. “If you are okay with it, you’re okay with it. Each person is different.”
Certainly, a win in the Cup race would have been the perfect ending to an already phenomenal weekend for Allmendinger. On Saturday, he gave Kaulig Racing its first Xfinity Series victory of 2022, leading 27 laps en route to his 11th win in NASCAR’s junior league.
A.J. Allmendinger will be running full-time for the NASCAR Xfinity championship in 2024, as well as compete in select Cup races, including Sunday's (weather permitting) Daytona 500. (Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images)
With seven of his Xfinity wins and both of his Cup Series wins coming on road courses, Allmendinger is one of NASCAR’s true road course ringers. This should not come as a surprise to long-time fans of his though, considering his background is in open-wheel and sports car racing.
So whenever NASCAR competes on a road course, regardless of the series, if Allmendinger is entered in the race, there’s a good chance he’ll win. He only led two laps in total in Sunday’s Cup race, but remained near the front all afternoon despite a disappointing qualifying result of 20th.
Of course, the great run came to an end on the last lap. However, Allmendinger kept his chin up following the race.
“If we had a long run, nobody was going to touch us,” Allmendinger said. "I’m so proud of everyone at Kaulig Racing. All these men and women have had a lot of sleepless nights trying to just get these cars to the next race. I was doing everything I could do to try to sweep the weekend for them. We were that close.
“We know we had a shot to win the race. It's tough to win a Cup race, so when you put yourself in a position to legitimately run up front all day and have a shot to win it, it's a pretty great day. Unfortunately, we just needed about two more corners.”
Two corners he didn't get.
While it was a rough finish to the weekend, Allmendinger will have plenty more chances to win on a road course this year: 10 more to be exact. His next Xfinity road course race takes place at Portland International Raceway (the site of his first Champ Car win) on June 4.
The Cup Series will then race at Sonoma the following week, and the 'Dinger will be there as well, hoping to avenge what happened Sunday at COTA.
Follow Michael Eubanks on Twitter @MEubanks_Writer