NASCAR: A.J. Allmendinger promotion could start a new trend

A.J. Allmendinger is set to run full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series for Kaulig Racing next season, which is good news for drivers looking to revive their careers.

The A.J. Allmendinger comeback tour appears to be reaching its destination, as he has received a promotion to the NASCAR Cup Series for next season.

Kaulig Racing announced on Wednesday that Allmendinger is set to drive the #16 Chevrolet full-time in the Cup Series, a ride he currently shares with Daniel Hemric and Noah Gragson.

The news came following a weekend when Allmendinger won the Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, securing a spot in the round of 8 of the playoffs. He has four wins, 14 top five finishes, and a series-leading 25 top 10 finishes through 28 races this season.

The Xfinity Series has helped him revive his career after a lengthy but largely mediocre stint at the sport’s top level.

Allmendinger’s first seven years in the Cup Series featured a mix of part-time and full-time campaigns. He recorded just five top five finishes and 30 top 10 finishes in 191 races.

He then joined JTG Daugherty Racing full-time in 2014, recording his first Cup Series win at Watkins Glen International to secure his only career playoff appearance. He finished the season in 13th place in the point standings.

Allmendinger ran four more seasons with JTG Daugherty Racing. He recorded a total of just six top five finishes during his five-year stint with the team and finished the 2018 season without any future plans.

“As of right now, I have zero races planned,” Allmendinger told NBC Sports ahead of the 2018 finale. “I’ve got nothing. Maybe there are races that crop up over the course of the season. I’ll say for sure, let’s go 95% sure, that I definitely won’t be racing a full season in anything.”

With no NASCAR Cup Series prospects, A.J. Allmendinger went a different route, finding an opportunity to race in the Xfinity Series.

Allmendinger joined Kaulig Racing part-time for 2019, recording a win on the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval in the last of his five starts. He re-joined the team for 2020, recording two wins and an average finish of 8.9 in 11 races.

His strong runs earned him a full-time Xfinity Series ride with the team, where he has delivered a pair of career years.

Allmendinger recorded five wins and 18 top five finishes last season, and he advanced to the Championship 4. That momentum has carried over to this season. He won the regular season championship and currently has a series-best (among full-time drivers) average finish of 6.1.

Now he is set for another chance to prove himself in the Cup Series, where he already scored a win in one of his five starts with Kaulig Racing in 2021.

Allmendinger’s comeback story is good news for other drivers, as it proves that there is a path to career revival in NASCAR’s lower levels.

Allmendinger is not the first driver to follow a largely unsuccessful Cup Series tenure with a move to a more competitive ride in one of NASCAR’s other national touring series.

Elliott Sadler won three races and recorded an average points finish of 22.0 across 12 full-time Cup season before racing full-time in the Xfinity Series between 2011 and 2018.

Sadler was far more competitive following the move, with eight wins and an average points finish of 3.25, but he only returned to the Cup Series for a handful of events.

Justin Allgaier had a smaller sample size in the Cup Series, running two full-time seasons for an underfunded team before joining JR Motorsports (JRM) in the Xfinity Series in 2016. He collected 13 wins and five top five points finishes in his first six seasons with JRM before scoring three more wins so far this year.

Allgaier could be an option for a similar promotion to Allmendinger, with JRM rumored to be looking at adding a Cup operation in the coming years, but he has still only run a handful of Cup Series events since his move.

With Allmendinger finding a path back to the NASCAR Cup Series, it could start a trend among other drivers who have made similar moves recently.

Matt DiBenedetto, with seven Cup Series seasons under his belt, shifted his efforts to the Truck Series after being replaced at Wood Brothers Racing. He scored his first career national series win in the Truck Series race at Talladega Superspeedway this past weekend.

John Hunter Nemechek had a 22.4 average finish in the Cup Series with Front Row Motorsports in 2020 before shifting to a full-time Truck Series effort with a competitive Kyle Busch Motorsports team. Nemechek advanced to the Championship 4 last year and has scored seven wins since the start of 2021.

And Hemric won the Xfinity Series championship last season after a full-time Cup Series campaign in 2019, when he recorded a 22.5 average finish.

All of these drivers have been way more competitive since re-focusing their efforts.

While other sports have expanded preseason rosters for veterans attempting to earn spots on a big-league team, NASCAR does not have such an option, so the other two national series are the only way, barring substitute opportunities, for drivers to show what they can do.

The Xfinity Series and the Truck Series have provided both a natural feeder system for young talent looking to climb through the ranks and a home for veteran drivers looking to extend their careers. But now, the two series seem to be serving another purpose somewhere in between.

Allmendinger’s promotion could provide extra motivation for other drivers to try this path. Plus, limits on the number of races that Cup Series drivers can run at these levels has theoretically increased the availability of good rides, which also helps.

Regardless of whether Allmendinger’s promotion starts a new trend in NASCAR, it will create more scenarios to watch for during silly season and is both a feel-good story for him and good news for other drivers.