Allmendinger Back to Indy Victory Lane with Xfinity Win

Photo Credit to James Gilbert/Getty Images for NASCAR

NASCAR

AJ Allmendinger Takes Ninth Xfinity Road Course Win at Indy

SPEEDWAY, Ind. – NASCAR’s all-time winningest road course racer reigns supreme at Indianapolis. After taking last year’s Cup Series win, AJ Allmendinger went back-to-back at the Brickyard in the Xfinity car. Starting from pole, AJ was the class of the field for most of the day. However, a few pit road pitfalls did set the 16 back. In the end though, Allmendinger brought home a ninth career Xfinity road course win by two seconds over Alex Bowman.

Allmendinger flexed his muscles early, taking the lead with ease from Ty Gibbs at the start. Stage 1 appeared to be in AJ’s hands, until a miscue on pit road. The Kaulig Racing No. 16 fell off the jack on the first pit stop. This set the lightning-quick Chevrolet back in traffic, as Stage 1 went to Noah Gragson.

Stage 2 would see both Monster Energy cars spin on the opening lap, both because of Josh Berry’s aggressiveness. Allmendinger would retake the lead on a restart midway through this Stage. Despite regaining lost ground, the 16 short-pitting led to the 8 of Berry taking the Stage win.

On the last trip down pit road, Allmendinger would barely get beaten out by the 17 of Alex Bowman. To start the final Stage, AJ lined up second to Bowman, but quickly retook the top spot on the restart.

For the rest of the race, AJ simply managed his lead over Bowman, cruising to the checkers with a large gap. This third win of 2022 is also Allmendinger’s ninth Xfinity road course triumph, only padding his all-time lead in this stat. As expected, AJ was pretty ecstatic with another chance at kissing the bricks.

“God I love this place, Indy baby let’s gooo,” Allmendinger said on the front stretch. “I can’t thank everybody at Kaulig Racing enough, all the men and women. We’ve struggled, worked hard to get a little bit better. This NutrienAg Solutions Chevy was good. I knew Bowman was good on the long runs, so I tried to gap him as much as I could. God I love Indy, thank you guys!”

“We win and lose as a team. I knew the way our car was set up, it’s not very good in traffic. We were having a little bit of brake issues as well, so the guys recovered really well. I was just frustrated just because I knew that we gave up Stage points there to guys we’re fighting in the points. At this point though, points don’t mean a damn thing. We’re kissing the bricks, hell yeah!”

Behind Allmendinger and Bowman, Justin Allgaier, Ross Chastain, and Chase Briscoe were the top five. Four of these drivers will be in tomorrow’s Cup race. That includes Ross Chastain, who tied the best-ever finish for DGM Racing. Riley Herbst, Ty Gibbs, Sam Mayer, Austin Hill, and Noah Gragson were the top 10.

In his Xfinity Series career, AJ Allmendinger is now only winless at one road course—Watkins Glen. Even with a Cup win here, AJ’s best Xfinity finish is second, happening twice. Driver 16 will have a chance to erase his 0-for-3 streak at the New York track in just a few weeks.

Now with three wins on the year, Allmendinger is fourth in the Playoff seeding with six regular season races left. Take a look below at the current Xfinity Playoff leaderboard.

Where does Xfinity head next? Michigan, where AJ Allmendinger won last year. The Kaulig 16 will be a favorite again going up against JRM, JGR, and all other Xfinity contenders. Coverage of the New Holland 250 is Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

Written by Peter Stratta

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Photo Credit to James Gilbert/Getty Images for NASCAR