AJ Allmendinger Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor For the second year in a row, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Texas Motor Speedway for the annual NASCAR All-Star Race, where a $1 million payday awaits the winner of Sunday night’s non-points exhibition race. A total of 24 drivers will compete in the four-round, 100 lap event, with eligible drivers including those who won a points-paying racing in 2021 or 2022, full-time drivers that have previously won an All-Star Race, and former Cup Series champions who still race full time. Drivers that met theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service The numbers tell the story of Justin Allgaier’s impressive victory in Saturday’s Mahindra ROXOR 200 at Darlington Raceway. First and foremost, in defending the NASCAR Xfinity Series victory he claimed last spring at the Lady in Black, Allgaier broke a 34-race drought dating to that 2021 win. For the second straight race, JR Motorsports posted a 1-2 result, with Noah Gragson trailing Allgaier to the finish line by .259 seconds in a two-lap dash to the end of regulation. JRM drivers now have wonRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Josh Berry answered a runner-up finish last year at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway with a victory Saturday in the A-Game 200 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the track– holding off his JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier by .604-seconds. Berry led the final 55 laps of the 200-lap race to claim his first win of 2022 and the third of his Xfinity Series career. His JR Motorsports team claimed four of the race’s top-five positions – the first time any team has done so sinceRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service It was an Earnhardt Saturday in Earnhardt country. Grabbing the lead on a restart in the third overtime, Noah Gragson—driving for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports—won the Ag-Pro 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series at Talladega Superspeedway. Gragson beat Jeffrey Earnhardt, grandson of seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Dale Earnhardt Sr., who was driving a black No. 3 Chevrolet in a special appearance for Richard Childress Racing, which fielded Dale Sr.’s car during his heyday.  On the mammoth 2.66-mile track where Dale Sr. won a record 10Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILE, Va. – On older tires, Brandon Jones stole an Xfinity Series win from the scion of the owner of his race team on Saturday night at Martinsville Speedway.  Jones dived to the inside of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs as the Call 811 Before You Dig 250 went to a second overtime. Jones cleared Gibbs on the second circuit (Lap 261) and got to the finish line .677 seconds ahead of Landon Cassill, as Sam Mayer bumped Gibbs’s Toyota and squeezed itRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor For the second week in a row, the NASCAR Cup Series stays in the State of Virginia, as it heads down to Martinsville Speedway for Saturday night’s Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400. A mainstay on the schedule since 1949, the historic half-mile, which is also the smallest on the circuit, will test both man and machine over the course of the evening. Martinsville marks the smallest track the Next Gen car has raced on since the exhibition race at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to kickRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Ty Gibbs bumped his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate John Hunter Nemechek out of the lead on the final lap to claim his third NASCAR Xfinity Series race win of the season – by a mere .116-seconds over Nemechek in the ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond Raceway. The two JGR drivers dominated the afternoon – combining to lead all but one of the 250 laps on the .075-mile track – the first short track test of the season. Nemechek paced the field for a race highRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AUSTIN, Texas – The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Once again, the old adage rang true at the end of a NASCAR Cup Series race as Ross Chastain scored his first career win at NASCAR’s highest level on Sunday at the Circuit of the Americas while AJ Allmendinger was left to wonder what if after getting spun on the last lap of the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix. A day before Sunday’s main event, Chastain and Allmendinger went to battle in the NASCAR XfinityRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service AUSTIN, Texas – In exactly the kind of thrilling final lap, final-turn high-action finish NASCAR has so often provided on road courses, Ross Chastain persevered in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix to win his first career NASCAR Cup Series race at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas – the sixth different winner this season. Chastain really had to earn this one – coming out on the right end of a frantic, four lead-change, two-lap final overtime. And he did – moving veteranRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AUSTIN, Texas – With limited track time ahead of Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas, a number of NASCAR Cup Series drivers took the opportunity to climb behind the wheel in the lower series to get some additional laps around the 20-turn, 3.41-mile road course. Saturday’s first race, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series XPEL 225, would feature Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman, and Kaz Grala trying to gather valuable intel on the tricky track. Bowman started highest among the Cup regulars fromRead More