Allmendinger Picks Up Fourth-Straight Roval Win

Photo by Peter Stratta/TSJSports

NASCAR

AJ Allmendinger Completes Roval Four-Peat, Fifth Win of 2022

CONCORD, N.C. – The momentum train keeps rolling in the Kaulig Racing camp with AJ Allmendinger. Coming off last week’s Talladega win and announcing his return to the NASCAR Cup Series, ‘Dinger found himself in victory lane again at the Charlotte Roval. AJ has now won this event four years in a row, even though the competition this year was as close as it’s ever been. In addition to Allmendinger’s elation though, four drivers were eliminated from the Xfinity Series Playoffs.

Starting from pole, Allmendinger winning Stage 1 was almost a foregone conclusion. The 16 choosing to pit after the opening Stage though set him back for Stage 2. Many opting to short-pit this middle segment handed the win to Brandon Jones.

Pit cycles put Ty Gibbs ahead of Allmendinger to start Stage 3. The 54 and 16 would be the two racing it out amongst themselves as the class of the field. AJ would only get by Gibbs on the first overtime restart, beating the 20-year-old down through turn one. On another ensuing restart, AJ was quick to clear Gibbs again, and drive off to the win.

This Roval triumph marks Allmendinger’s 15th career Xfinity Series win, fifth of 2022, and his 10th road course victory. AJ also won the last two races in the Round of 12, so this Kaulig team could be heating up at the right time.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Allmendinger, who won for the fourth time in four starts at the Charlotte Roval. “Ty was really good there at the end, and I didn’t know if I was going to be able to get him. I knew if I could just get to one restart on the outside of him, at least we’d have a chance.”

“I was wanting it pretty bad there,” Allmendinger said. “I didn’t think we had a shot, but I’m always going to put it on my back when it’s time to go. We got that one. We stole that one!

“I drove it in as deep as I could (on the final restart), probably used Ty up just a little bit, but I’d expect the same if the roles were reversed.”

Eliminated from Xfinity title contention after the Charlotte Roval were defending champion Daniel Hemric, Ryan Sieg, Riley Herbst, and Jeremy Clements.

Behind Allmendinger and Gibbs, Noah Gragson, James Davison, Justin Allgaier, Alex Labbe, Brandon Jones, Josh berry, Ryan Sieg, and Landon Cassill were the top 10. Hear from some of these drivers and other Playoff contenders below.

The Xfinity Series Playoffs now reset their standings for the Round of 8. The opening race of this second leg in the Playoffs will be next Saturday from Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Coverage of the Alsco Uniforms 302 is at 3:00 p.m. ET on NBC, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. At LVMS in the spring, Gragson was fast only to lose out late to Gibbs. Will these two duel it out for the win again?

Written by Peter Stratta

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Photo Credit to Peter Stratta/TSJSports