CONCORD, N.C. — AJ Allmendinger carries a perfect four-for-four record in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval into this weekend’s Round of 12 finale.
And yet the driver of the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet is not sporting the same bravado about the road-course-oval hybrid as he has in past years.
“I go into this weekend probably with the least amount of confidence that I ever been going into the Roval,” Allmendinger said Tuesday during a media availability. “You know, I looked at Talladega as a race I was like, I’ve probably got more of a chance to win there than I do at the Roval.”
MORE: Charlotte Roval schedule | Xfinity Playoffs standings
His candor offers a stark contrast from what’s become the expectation from Allmendinger, whose 14 road-race victories in the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity series are most all-time across the sport’s three national series, including a weekend sweep of last year’s Roval races.
Entering Saturday’s Drive for the Cure 250 (4 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Allmendinger sits eighth in the Xfinity Series Playoffs standings, the final car above the elimination line by a mere seven points, with teammate and fellow road ace Shane van Gisbergen lurking 10 points beneath that provisional divider. Eleven times, Allmendinger has gone to Victory Lane after an Xfinity road-course race. None of those have come in 2024 after five attempts, his best finish a third-place effort on Sept. 14 at Watkins Glen International. SVG, on the other hand, has won three times.
“I’ve struggled with being loose in the Xfinity car. That is at every road course that I’ve went to,” Allmendinger said.
Van Gisbergen’s advantage at the Xfinity level, Allmendinger noted, is his ability to use the heal-toe method of shifting, using his right heal to brake and toes to blip the throttle while downshifting and utilizing his left foot on the clutch. That clutch usage also allows SVG to skip gears if he so chooses, matching RPMs with the gas pedal. That experience stems from his days becoming a three-time champion in Australian Supercars, where another one of Allmendinger’s former teammates — two-time Cup winner Marcos Ambrose — laid the foundation for stock-car success on road courses.
“The thing is, Shane and I, when we talk about the cars, I think we feel them fairly close to the same of what we fight. He’s just worked through it better and obviously he’s had really good success,” Allmendinger said. “[…] So we feel the car the same. But some of these race tracks, he’s figured out what to do. He’s really good at rolling corner speed, and that’s what I’ve noticed. So like Sonoma was a place that, following him, I tried to drive exactly like he was doing, and I just didn’t have lateral grip, and he makes it work. …
“I haven’t figured out what that is, what I struggle with. You know, I can pinpoint it; just haven’t figured out what that is and how to make it better.”
Having a teammate like van Gisbergen has been helpful for Allmendinger, though, if not for anything but motivation knowing SVG can still win despite similar struggles.
“I’m a fan of motorsports, so you get a three-time champion of the elite series of where you’re coming from,” Allmendinger said. “I mean, we all see what he can do. We saw what he did in Chicago. So on the road course side of it, it’s good for me to see, like, hey, like he’s still getting the speed out of the car, so I just got to figure that out. […] I guess you could always look at it (like) there’s rivalry a little bit with your teammate, but it’s not — I don’t look at us as a rivalry, right? Like, I just see what he’s doing. It’s like, yeah, I need to be better. Like, on the road courses, I’d like to get there. So he’s definitely pushing me and I enjoy that part of it.”
What lies ahead this weekend is a reconfigured Roval, changed this year to feature a longer straightaway between Turns 5 and 6 to set up a sweeping right-handed Turn 6 into an extremely tight left-handed hairpin at Turn 7 leading back to the banked turns of the oval. Additionally, the frontstretch chicane gets a new look as its Turn 15 entry dives further left to set up a sharper, near-90-degree right Turn 16 before a 90-degree left back to the start/finish line. The anticipated outcome, Allmendinger believes, is more excitement, which he sees ahead for some ambitious passing opportunities. Highest alert on Allmendinger’s radar, though, is the hairpin.
“It’ll be interesting to feel in real life, the hump that they got going over into the first right-hander there in the new part of the section of the race track,” he said, “because on sim, the hump is pretty extreme. So it’s kind of where you get on the brakes. It kind of reminds me a little bit — not maybe as extreme downhill — but like Chicago, down right by the the city section there by all the hotels and stuff. So it’ll open it up, especially in Xfinity, I think, for wheel-hopping over that rise. But yeah, I can definitely see using the bumper in the right-hand section. But the problem is, if you do that, you’ve got the next hairpin left-hander. So I think desperation and stuff, there’s gonna be a lot of dive-bombs at the hairpin. I think that’s kind of where we’re gonna see a lot of the action.”
MORE: Allmendinger, SVG highlight Cup entry list | Top road winners in Cup history
And while his confidence may have lowered slightly in the Xfinity car at the Roval, he fully intends on defending his victory in the NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday (2 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). In four Cup road races this season, Allmendinger has finished sixth twice (Circuit of The Americas and Sonoma Raceway) and failed to finish twice, crashing out at Chicago and losing a transmission at Watkins Glen.
“I’m showing up to win the race, but I only put the expectations on me to go run well,” Allmendinger said. “Look, it’s hard to win Cup races. It’s hard to run top five in Cup races. Like, the ultimate goal to me, still, is to show up. If we can run top five, top six, that’s a great day. And if we get it right, I know we can win. But on the Xfinity side of it, for sure, it’s just — because if you take SVG out, I don’t win any of the races this year. It’d be different if SVG was winning and I’m running second and I’m like, ‘yeah, just got to figure out a way to beat my teammate.’ But like, literally, if he’s not in the race, I still don’t win any of those races.”
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