Open-wheel titles and a Cup win at Watkins Glen, a 2012 suspension and comeback, then a run of road course and Xfinity success that brought him back to full-time Cup racing.
Open-wheel champion turned Cup driver A. J. Allmendinger won five Champ Car races in 2006, took his first NASCAR Cup win at Watkins Glen in 2014, and became a road course specialist with Kaulig Racing. He has also worked as a television analyst for NBC and Fox.
A. J. Allmendinger is an American stock car driver who started in open-wheel racing before moving to NASCAR. He won five Champ Car races in 2006 and later became a Cup winner at Watkins Glen. He now races full-time in the Cup Series for Kaulig Racing, and he is known for a long run of road course success.
How did Allmendinger's early career in karts and open-wheel cars begin?
Allmendinger started racing at five, on BMX bikes, and by eight he was competing in quarter-midgets on West Coast ovals. He then turned to karting and won two International Kart Federation Grand National championships.
He entered the Formula Dodge National Championship in 2001, which led to the Barber Dodge Pro Series title in 2002. The following year Carl Russo's RuSPORT team signed him, and he won the Champ Car Atlantic Championship with nine poles and seven wins.
A Champ Car champion who made the jump to NASCAR and became a road course specialist in the Cup and Xfinity Series.
What did his first Champ Car seasons bring?
RuSPORT entered the Champ Car World Series in 2004 with two cars. Allmendinger scored a podium at the Grand Prix of Vancouver and another in Mexico City, finishing sixth in points and taking the Rookie of the Year award ahead of Justin Wilson.
In 2005 Wilson became his RuSPORT teammate, and Allmendinger finished on the podium five times, four of them as runner-up. In July he took his first Champ Car pole at the Grand Prix of Edmonton.
How did the 2006 season change his career?
On June 9, 2006, RuSPORT replaced Allmendinger with Cristiano da Matta, believing da Matta would be better placed to challenge Sebastien Bourdais. Five days later Forsythe Championship Racing signed him in place of Mario Dominguez.
His first race for Forsythe was a win at the Grand Prix of Portland. He followed with victories at Cleveland and Toronto, three straight wins, and he was second in the standings going into the eighth race of the year.
He added two more wins, at Denver and Road America, but left Champ Car before the final race of 2006 to accept an offer from Red Bull Racing in NASCAR. Five wins in the season made him one of the most successful drivers in the series that year.
Why did he move from open-wheel racing to NASCAR?
In 2007 Allmendinger said that the split between CART and the IRL had left open-wheel racing without marketing and sponsorship, which pushed several drivers toward NASCAR. He argued that the sport needed one series so that the best open-wheel drivers on the continent could race each other.
Red Bull announced him as part of its 2007 Cup lineup on October 25, 2006. His stock car start came in the Craftsman Truck Series, where his September 2006 debut at New Hampshire with Bill Davis Racing ended 13th.
How did his first Cup seasons with Red Bull go?
In 2007 Allmendinger failed to qualify for the Daytona 500 and then for several other races, making his first Cup start at the Food City 500 at Bristol. He ended the year having failed to qualify in nineteen races.
He used Truck Series and Busch Series races to learn the transition, and in May 2007 he led seven laps at Charlotte in a Truck race before finishing second behind Ron Hornaday Jr. That run marked the first time he had led a race near the front in his career.
In 2008 he failed to qualify for the Daytona 500 again and was temporarily replaced by Mike Skinner. He returned at Talladega, and on May 17 he took the Sprint Showdown exhibition at Lowe's, which earned him a place in the All-Star Race, where he finished 17th.
He had his best Cup finish of the time, ninth at Kansas, but Red Bull released him two days later. The rest of the season went to Scott Speed and Mike Skinner, and Allmendinger finished with two top-ten results.
How did his Richard Petty Motorsports years develop?
Allmendinger drove five races for Gillett Evernham Motorsports in 2008 with an average finish of 15.4. A planned move to the No. 19 car fell through after a dispute with Elliott Sadler, and the team was renumbered No. 44.
In the 2009 Daytona 500 he finished third in his debut for the team, his best result in that race. Under the go-or-go-home rules he was one of only two drivers to qualify for all of the first five races in 2009.
In 2010 he replaced Reed Sorenson in the No. 43, collecting two top-five finishes, eight top-ten finishes and a pole, and finishing 19th in the standings. In 2011 he had a career-best ten top-tens and finished fifteenth in the points.
That year he also bought into MSR Indy, the IndyCar operation run by Mike Shank. In 2011 he finished eleventh in the Daytona 500 and was contending for a Chase place late in the year.
What happened during his 2012 season at Penske?
Allmendinger moved to Penske Racing's No. 22 car at the end of 2011, when a seat opened after the departure of Kurt Busch. His best result before the disruption was second at Martinsville.
A July 2012 random drug test came back positive, and a second sample confirmed a banned stimulant, which led to an indefinite suspension. He completed NASCAR's Road to Recovery programme, was released by Penske on August 1, and was reinstated on September 18. Sam Hornish Jr. took over the car.
He returned in October 2012 at Charlotte, driving for Phoenix Racing filling in for Regan Smith, who had moved to Hendrick's No. 88 while Dale Earnhardt Jr. was out with a concussion.
How did his 2013 IndyCar comeback go?
Allmendinger was part-time for Team Penske in IndyCar in 2013, starting at Barber Motorsports Park and then the Indianapolis 500. He finished 19th in his IndyCar debut and was put back in the car for the next race at Long Beach.
At the Indianapolis 500 he qualified fifth, led 23 laps and finished seventh, despite a pit stop to deal with a loose seatbelt. At the Detroit Dual races he crashed out of both.
He returned for the season finale at Fontana to help Helio Castroneves in the title battle. He qualified second behind teammate Will Power and finished 16th after a crash on lap 190. He has not raced in IndyCar since, and he has said he would not return unless cockpit safety were improved after the death of Justin Wilson.
How did he win his first Cup race at Watkins Glen?
In 2013 Allmendinger moved to Phoenix Racing's No. 51 part-time, and in the Sprint Cup he drove part-time in the early season before JTG Daugherty Racing signed him for 2014 on a multi-year deal. He finished tenth at Watkins Glen in 2013 in the No. 47 car.
In 2014 he had a breakthrough at Sonoma, where he qualified on the front row and led the most laps before Dale Earnhardt Jr. wrecked him with 25 laps to go. That result was painful, but it set up his first Cup win.
At Watkins Glen he moved in front with fewer than thirty circuits left, passing Marcos Ambrose side by side, and he stayed there to the flag. It was his first Cup win after 213 starts, and it came for a team he had raced for since 2013.
What did his later JTG and Xfinity seasons look like?
In 2015 he passed on the Sprint Unlimited and kept his cars fresh for the races that counted, and he joined the Motor Racing Network radio broadcast. He led laps at the Daytona 500 that year and signed a five-year extension with JTG Daugherty.
At Martinsville in 2016 he surged from 13th with under twenty laps left and took second behind Kyle Busch, 1.547 seconds adrift. He finished the season 19th in the standings.
In 2017 he was third at the Daytona 500, equalling his best finish there, and he was caught in a multi-car crash at Talladega. At Watkins Glen he was the highest-placed Chevrolet in ninth. In 2018 he won the Monster Energy Open for a second time, and in September 2018 he announced he would leave JTG at season's end.
How did his Kaulig Racing years develop?
In 2019 Kaulig Racing gave him a part-time Xfinity Series schedule in the No. 10 car. He was third at the Daytona Firecracker 250 but was disqualified after failing an engine vacuum test, and at Watkins Glen he finished second and was disqualified for low rear corners.
His final start of 2019 at the Charlotte Roval brought his first win of the season and the third of his Xfinity career, beating Tyler Reddick. He moved to the No. 16 car for 2020 and reached Victory Lane on an oval for the first time at Atlanta.
At Atlanta in 2020 he took his first oval win in the Xfinity Series, which made him eligible for the Dash 4 Cash bonus. He finished fourth at Homestead to claim it, and he won the Charlotte Roval again that year.
In 2021 he ran the full Xfinity schedule for Kaulig and won at Las Vegas for his sixth career Xfinity victory, then at Mid-Ohio. On August 15, 2021, he took his second Cup win on the Indianapolis road course, giving Kaulig its first Cup victory, and he won the regular-season title at Bristol.
What did his 2022 to 2024 seasons bring?
In 2022 he opened the Xfinity season with a runner-up finish at Daytona, won at COTA, Portland and Indianapolis, and clinched the regular-season title at Bristol. Talladega and the Charlotte Roval each went his way in consecutive races, and he finished fifth in the standings.
He returned to full-time Cup racing in 2023 in the No. 16 car, winning the Charlotte Roval and finishing 21st in the standings. He also won at COTA and Nashville in the Xfinity Series.
In 2024 he drove the No. 16 full-time in the Xfinity Series for Kaulig, won at Las Vegas to reach the Championship 4 and finished third in the final standings.
What are his results by series?
| Season | Series | Team | Standout result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Champ Car | Forsythe | Five wins, second in points at one stage |
| 2009 | Cup | Richard Petty Motorsports | Third in the Daytona 500 debut |
| 2013 | IndyCar | Team Penske | Seventh in the Indianapolis 500 |
| 2014 | Cup | JTG Daugherty Racing | First Cup win at Watkins Glen |
| 2021 | Cup | Kaulig Racing | Indianapolis road course win |
| 2023 | Cup | Kaulig Racing | 21st in points, win at the Charlotte Roval |
| 2024 | Xfinity | Kaulig Racing | Third in the final standings |
| 2025 | Cup | Kaulig Racing | 26th in points, two top fives, a pole |
How did his full-time Cup return in 2025 go?
Kaulig announced in August 2024 that Allmendinger would run a full Cup schedule in 2025 in the No. 16. It was the first year since 2017 that he would not appear in the Xfinity Series.
He began with a blown engine at the Daytona 500, finishing 41st, and he was 30th at Circuit of the Americas after a loose wheel. He bounced back with top-ten results at Las Vegas and Homestead, and he finished fourth at the Coca-Cola 600 for his first top five of the year.
The second half was harder. He had a fifth top ten on the Chicago street course, but he was 18th at Sonoma after a spin and last at Dover after a brake failure. He finished 26th in the points, backed by two top-five results, seven top-ten finishes and a Bristol pole.
What has Allmendinger done in sports cars and television?
He has raced in the 24 Hours of Daytona from 2006 to 2021, skipping only 2017. He won the 2012 race as the final driver on the team's winning run with Michael Shank Racing, and in 2014 the team finished 47th overall.
In December 2018 NBC Sports hired him as an analyst for its IMSA sports car coverage, and he also contributed to NBCSN's NASCAR America. In 2019 he worked the NBC IndyCar booth at Iowa, alongside Leigh Diffey and Paul Tracy.
