CONCORD, N.C. – A.J. Allmendinger had one job Saturday afternoon on Charlotte Motor Speedway’s ROVAL course: win.
Allmendinger did exactly that, muscling his way past Christopher Bell with 20 laps left and surviving multiple restarts to earn his first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of the year during the Drive for the Cure 250.
“This race track is so fun, I really enjoy it,” Allmendinger said. “I said it last year, it takes me back to my Champ Car days. It’s a street course and if you make a small mistake it’s usually huge consequences. It makes it fun to race on, but very difficult.”
The 37-year-old NASCAR veteran, making his final start of the season in the No. 10 Chevrolet Camaro for Kaulig Racing, lingered within the top-five for most of the race. He utilized an alternative strategy during the first two stages, pitting prior to the end of each stage to gain track position for the start of the next stage.
At the start of the final stage Allmendinger lined up third thanks to the aforementioned strategy and quickly dispatched runner-up Austin Cindric to take over second. He then set his sights on Bell, hounding Bell for the next lap.
On lap 47 Allmendinger was all over Bell through the infield section of the 2.28-mile course. Multiple hits to Bell’s bumper allowed Allmendinger to get to his inside coming out of turn eight and the veteran was able to complete the pass on Bell as the duo raced back onto the oval section of the course.
“It was so critical to get up front,” Allmendinger said. “When I was behind the 20 (Bell) or the 00 (Cole Custer) or the 98 (Chase Briscoe) I started using my tires up and I couldn’t dictate my own pace. I knew I had to be very aggressive behind Christopher early in that last run.
“I felt like if I go around him I could at least dictate my own pace and really see, from there, what kind of speed we had and we had a lot of speed.”
Allmendinger quickly built a lead on Bell, but it was promptly erased when Lawson Aschenbach spun just past turn one to bring out the caution flag. The race resumed with 17 laps left and Allmendinger held serve as the battle intensified behind him for second through fourth.
Polesitter Briscoe was the man on the move, dispatching Austin Cindric to take third on lap 54. He quickly tracked down Bell and the duo went to war over the second position. That battle intensified through the frontstretch chicane, with Briscoe forcing Bell to miss a portion of the chicane.
Briscoe and Bell stayed side-by-side entering turn one, but heading towards turn two they made contact and Briscoe went spinning to bring out the caution flag. Cindric slipped by the mayhem to take second while NASCAR penalized Bell for missing the chicane just prior to the caution.
“I thought maybe Chase Briscoe was probably the quickest car out there. If the kid could have got to second he might have had a chance to get us,” Allmendinger said.
Allmendinger again held serve on the restart with seven laps left, but another caution for a crash by Ray Black Jr. in the frontstretch chicane brought the race to a crawl yet again.
The final green flag waved with three laps left and Allmendinger again maintained the lead through the first corner as Cindric tried to stay close. Despite Cindric’s best effort, Allmendinger effortlessly pulled away in the closing laps to earn his first Xfinity Series victory in six years.
“They put me in the race car to go win, they didn’t put me (in the race car) to just go ride around and be nice to everybody,” Allmendinger said. “I made the decision, especially for the win, that I was going to do whatever it took.
“Of course I didn’t want to just drive somebody straight into the fence and wreck them for the win, but I was going to be aggressive and make sure that I had an opportunity to do what I was supposed to do for our race team, Kaulig Racing, go win the race.”
Tyler Reddick was able to slip past Cindric in the final laps to finish second. Cindric, who was just trying to survive the final laps after the right-rear shock fell out of his Ford, finished third ahead of Justin Allgaier and Noah Gragson.
Canadian Alex Labbe finished a career-best sixth, followed by John Hunter Nemechek in seventh and Custer in eighth. Briscoe was able to rebound from his incident with Bell to finish ninth, with Ryan Truex completing the top-10.
Bell, who is already locked into round two of the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs thanks to his win last week at Richmond Raceway, finished 12th.
For complete results, advance to the next page.