At 43 years old, A.J. Allmendinger “proves I can still be here”

In December of this year, A.J. Allmendinger will turn 44 years old after competing in NASCAR for almost two full decades. He’s a truly unique driver when looking at his career trajectory, and Friday’s shock pole position at Bristol Motor Speedway only added to that.

Allmendinger did not take the path of your average NASCAR driver, and the sport wasn’t even on his radar for some time. From BMX Bikes to the International Kart Federation, he ended up rapidly rising through the open-wheel ladder system. He won the 2003 Champ Car Atlantic title before joining Champ Car in 2004, quickly joining the ranks as an official Red Bull Athlete, and winning multiple races.

But when Red Bull chose to open a NASCAR team, Allmendinger was chosen as one of their drivers. At first, he struggled mightily, failing to make the big show in 19 of 36 races in 2007. But Allmendinger is a grinder, and he kept pushing himself to learn and get better.

It took him seven years, but he eventually became a winner in the NASCAR Cup Series at Watkins Glen in 2014, besting Australian Supercars ace Marcos Ambrose. And by that point in his career, he had also earned an overall win in the 2012 Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, and finished seventh after leading 23 laps in the 2013 Indianapolis 500.

There were three clear moments when it looked like his Cup career might be over, and yet, after a brief sabbatical from full-time driving, he always returned. He enjoyed a lot of success in the Xfinity Series, earning his first oval win at Atlanta in 2020. If you want to read more about his incredible journey, check out ‘The Curious Case of A.J. Allmendinger: NASCAR’s Strangest Career Trajectory.’

Allmendinger continues to impress in 2025

But if we fast-forward to this year, Allmendinger has taken Kaulig Racing, which spends most weeks mid-pack, and helped them to a top five finish in two of the most grueling races on the schedule — the Coca-Cola 600 and the Southern 500. 

But what he did on Friday truly came out of nowhere. At the difficult half-mile, he bested all 16 playoff drivers and delivered Kaulig its first oval pole ever in the Cup Series.

“Every old dog has his day,” smiled Allmendinger when he climbed from his car. That may be true, but there aren’t many with 13 years between their last two poles at an oval. It just shows that if you give Allmendinger the car, he can still get it done.

“Days like today are enjoyable and gives me confidence because I feel like I can still do it,” said Allmendinger in a press conference that followed his impressive pole run. “And at the end of the day, anybody that knows me knows I’m by far the hardest on myself and I’m always going to be like that. That’s never going to change. So, days like today are important to me, as well, because it proves that I can be here.”

Kaulig Racing team president Chris Rice and driver AJ Allmendinger after Bristol pole

Photo by: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

While everyone focuses on the playoff drivers, few have noticed that Allmendinger is on his way to potentially giving Kaulig its best championship result ever at the Cup level, right on the edge of the top 20 in points.

“Yeah, I mean, you take Darlington two weeks ago; to go run top-five at Darlington, a racetrack that I’ve never been amazing at,” said Allmendinger as he reflected on the season. “The only thing that’s been tough this year is some of the races that we’ve had a lot of speed at, and a lot of teams can say this I’m sure, but the ones that we’ve been really quick at, we’ve had some bad things happen really out of our control.

“So, sometimes you don’t get those results and it’s hard to go back to the shop and smile about it and know that you’re making progress. But at the end of the day, we’ve made a lot of progress over the last two years of me driving the Cup car of the speed that we got. Matt Kaulig (owner) has put a lot more resources into it. Obviously, Chris (Rice, team president) has got a lot of work on his plate between the Xfinity side of it and the Cup side of it. With Ty (Norris, chief business officer) here and then Mike Cook being here as our competition director. So, yeah, we’re making progress. We know we’ve got a long ways to go, but days like today show we can go do it.”

Remember that while he’s a full-fledged NASCAR driver these days, Allmendinger was once a young open-wheel guy who struggled to qualify and didn’t even win a oval NASCAR race until a few years ago.

Look at him now, out-performing his equipment most weeks. At 43 years old, AJ is still improving and this week’s start at Bristol proves he belongs at this level.