When A.J. Allmendinger won the Bank of America ROVAL 400 on Sunday afternoon at Charlotte Motor Speedway, he celebrated the NASCAR Cup Series victory like it was his last.
He even said himself, “You don’t ever know if you’re going to win another Cup race. … I spent many years and not even come close to winning. You’re never going to see me get out of the car, do the ‘Hey’ and walk away. It’s raw emotion.”
That sentiment drove Allmendinger to tears during his frontstretch interview with NBC Sports, mere minutes after the No. 16 Kaulig Racing driver ran into the crowd to share the extraordinary moment with the fans.
When the party moved to victory lane, Allmendinger essentially tackled team owner Matt Kaulig, jumping atop his back to share a warm embrace.
Later on in the media center, team president Chris Rice was choked up with emotion as he described why Allmendinger belongs in NASCAR.
“I’ve never met a race car driver so passionate about what he does, in and outside the race car, and I never met a race car driver that cares about an owner like he does,” Rice said.
“I’ve never met somebody like A.J. Allmendinger. I think he got run through the ringer so many times and nobody ever dug into his life and how he is and how he acts enough to understand him. I’ll tell you, over the last month, he’s been very key and pivotal to everything we’re doing at Kaulig Racing.”
There’s no question that a win in any form of motorsports, at any elite level, is special.
Considering a team’s time, money and effort, a driver’s sacrifice and dedication, and the steep competition faced on the race track, it’s no easy feat to hoist a trophy at day’s end — especially in the NASCAR Cup Series.
And yet, even so, Allmendinger’s reaction was a rare circumstance.
It’s not often that a driver lets the walls come down and exhibits pure jubilation over a victory, whether hard-fought or dominant in nature. Yes, there’s often the enthused wave of the checkered flag and a wide smile in victory lane, but how often is a tear shed?
Now, there are a few things worth noting about Allmendinger’s victory, which may have added to the depth of emotion that poured from the 41-year-old on Sunday.
One, it was only Allmendinger’s third career Cup Series victory. And to that end, it was only the second top-tier NASCAR triumph for Kaulig Racing since it became a full-time Cup Series team in 2022.
Two, it was Allmendinger’s first triumph of any kind since becoming a father on Sept. 7.
Third, Allmendinger’s win at the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway ROVAL could very well be his last Cup Series victory for a while, as it’s unknown whether he will return to pilot the No. 16 Chevrolet or move back down to the Xfinity Series.
This season was Allmendinger’s first full-time run in the Cup Series since 2018, when he piloted the No. 47 entry for JTG Daughtery Racing.
Nonetheless, the celebration was refreshing, as was the evident chemistry among Allmendinger, Kaulig and Rice as they jokingly poked and prodded at one another in the media center on Sunday night.
“This organization over the last five years, and I’ve said this before, but they’ve saved my life. Not just living day-to-day but the happiness of day-to-day because if 2018 would have been it…there would’ve been a, ‘God, I wish I could have done some more,’” Allmendinger said. “But because of them, I’ve won on every type of oval in Xfinity, got to kiss the bricks at Indy—”
“Twice,” Rice interjected.
Allmendinger smiled. He continued, “Now if they wake up tomorrow and they’re like, ‘Hey, you’re old and you’re done,’ I can actually just be happy with everything that’s happened now in my career. Without them, I wouldn’t have had that. I would have always had that little bit of misery of not doing as much as I wanted.”