AUSTIN, Tex.—AJ Allmendinger’s love-hate relationship with Circuit of the Americas continued on Saturday.
The 43-year-old road racing ace was fifth in first practice, 11th in second practice and qualified 12th for the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix.
With the new configuration—NASCAR shaved a mile and three turns from the original 3.41-mile layout—the driver of the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet struggled to find a competitive feel.
“I think this new tire mostly has just thrown us for a loop when you’re in the sim (simulator) and stuff and trying to guess what it’s going to do,” Allmendinger said. “We’ve definitely struggled with fall-off. That’s probably the biggest concern that we’ve got right now is just how much we’re falling off compared to the field, how much the tire is wearing.
“We kind of went back and forth on balance, I think we can get the balance better. Qualifying, honestly, the balance still wasn’t overly good. I was kind of shocked by the kind of lap time that came up.
“So I think we’ve got OK speed in the race car, but we’ve just got to work on balance and then, with that, hopefully, that saves the tires a little bit better.”
While his stats in four Xfinity Series starts are crystal clear—Allmendinger won twice, finished second in NASCAR’s debut in 2021 and finished 10th last year—his Cup results don’t tell the true tale of his performance at Circuit of the Americas.
Allmendinger’s best Cup result was fifth in 2021. In year two, he started from the rear of the field after the team made unapproved adjustments before the race. Allmendinger battled his way to the front. He led two laps before an accident in Turn 1 dropped him from the lead to 33rd. Sixty laps into the 2023 race, he was wrecked again. Last year, the Dinger recovered with a sixth-place finish.
“The funny thing is, if you look at the results, they don’t look very good,” Allmendinger said. “But we got wrecked going for the win a couple of years ago and even the next year, we were running top-four, top-five and got wrecked on the restart.
“So this has been a race track that we’ve been pretty good at, but with that said, we’ve had days like this before here where we’ve struggled really bad in practice and get a little bit better in qualifying, but still kind of don’t leave the racetrack feeling very good about.
“And then we drop the green on Sunday and the car’s better, you know. So Trent Owens (crew chief) and the 16 group here, we’re going to go to work and just try to figure it out.”
The “One Welcome” group that includes the teams on the campus of Richard Childress Racing, where Kaulig Racing is based, enables the squads to share data and experiences. Allmendinger was hoping to lean on Kyle Busch, who qualified eighth, as well as Austin and Ty Dillon.
“Just got to make the right changes going into Sunday, and we can still be there at the end to go win this thing,” Allmendinger said.
No, Allmendinger isn’t enamored with the new layout at COTA. As a seasoned road racer, he misses the additional passing opportunities through Turns 7-11.
“If we’re being brutally honest, I don’t like it,” Allmendinger said. “Unfortunately, the sections they took out were, to me, the most fun sections on the racetrack. Definitely, takes away some of the passing zones as well.
“But I also understand why NASCAR is doing it—to get kind of more action, get the cars more packed up and get going by the grandstands more. So, I understand it, it’s just not as fun as it used to be driving this race track. But it’s the same for everybody. And if somehow we win tomorrow, I think it’s the best race track we’ve ever driven on.”
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