AJ Allmendinger had hoped for a weekend sweep for his Kaulig Racing team. The small organization dominated Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at the Circuit of the Americas, and their driver was in contention for another win in NASCAR’s top series on Sunday. But it all came crashing down on the last lap.
“I wanted to sweep the weekend and we came two corners away,” Allmendinger said.
Ross Chastain took his maiden win with aggressive moves on leader Allmendinger and challenger Alex Bowman. The latter was able to recover and finish second, but the contact ended Allmendinger’s day, and he ultimately finished 33rd.
“Everybody’s got to be comfortable with the move they make and look in the mirror,” Allmendinger said. “Everybody’s different on what they view, and you can’t judge a person for that. “You know the moves are going to be made at times. Whether I’m okay with it, doesn’t really matter.”
“I’m so proud of everyone at Kaulig Racing,” he said. “All these men and women have had a lot of sleepless nights trying to just get these cars to the next race. I was doing everything I could do to try to sweep the weekend for them. We were that close. We know we had a shot to win the race. It’s tough to win a Cup race, so when you put yourself in a position to legitimately run up front all day and have a shot to win it, it’s a pretty great day. Unfortunately, just we needed about two more corners.”
After winning the Xfinity race Saturday, Allmendinger said that the “best way to show how hard this team works is to go win races.” He’ll have another chance to do that when he continues his part-time Cup Series run at the series’ next race at Richmond Raceway on April 3rd.
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