AJ Allmendinger races the Kaulig Racing No. 16 Celsius Camaro in qualifying at Sonoma Raceway on Saturday. (Photo: Aaron Brink | The Podium Finish)
SONOMA, Calif. – A beautiful 76-degree Saturday at Sonoma Raceway did not shine so brightly upon AJ Allmendinger for the Zip Buy Now, Pay Later 250 XFINITY Series race.
Allmendinger entered the weekend as the top road racer in the series, boasting the most all-time road course victories of 11 and 18 straight road course top-10 finishes. He is always one to watch when NASCAR ventures to a road course and this weekend started out no differently.
The short practice session on Friday gave drivers just enough time to get their feet wet on the newly paved racing surface. Allmendinger ended the session as the seventh fastest car and moved on to qualifying fourth on Saturday, just 0.702 seconds behind the pole sitter, Shane van Gisbergen. According to Allmendinger, the No. 16 Celsius Camaro was a great car, but not necessarily a winning car.
At the drop of the green flag later in the day, Allmendinger was able to surge past third-place starter Austin Hill to fall closely in line with the top two cars of van Gisbergen and Ty Gibbs. The top three maintained a consistent gap until Lap 5, when Hill was able to rebound and pass Allmendinger for third. Allmendinger lost just enough momentum to allow Jesse Love to follow through with a pass for fourth through the esses.
“So loose, man,” Allmendinger radioed back to his crew regarding the condition of his race car.
The No. 16 continued to lose ground to the leaders as the laps went by, however on Lap 15, his luck changed when Love raced up on Hill, loosening him up and driving him wide on the track. Allmendinger was able to make the pass for fourth.
Just before Stage 1 ended, Gibbs and Love turned off for pit road under green, moving Allmendinger up to second. SVG stayed out to take the stage win and the playoff point, while Allmendinger gained nine stage points for his second-place finish.
The No. 16 Celsius Camaro on track during practice on Friday. (Photo: Aaron Brink | The Podium Finish)
During his first pit stop of the day on Lap 22, Allmendinger’s tough luck continued as the front tire changer hose got caught under the splitter, resulting in a slow stop overall. He lost four positions coming off pit road, putting him back in 13th for the Stage 2 restart.
Allmendinger was not able to gain much ground throughout Stage 2. Gibbs led the field wire-to-wire to win the stage, while Allmendinger was left fighting to keep his position mid-pack. Despite the struggle, the No. 16 crew’s call to pit under green on Lap 42 worked to their advantage, allowing Allmendinger to stay out while the leaders pitted at the end of Stage 2.
Allmendinger found himself restarting in third next to Cole Custer for the start of Stage 3. Things were looking up as Allmendinger raced right up to Hill’s bumper, fighting Austin Green side-by-side for second place. However, the momentum came to an end when the first caution flag of the day was waved for a complete parking lot situation behind the leaders. Half of the field was caught up when Chandler Smith was spun around by Jeb Burton, bringing everyone behind them to a halt.
Allmendinger’s crew chief Alex Yontz spoke with FOX Sports pit reporter Josh Sims under caution about the No. 16’s day. “It’s been a long day,” Yontz remarked. “We’ve got really good track position here and hopefully that helps some of the handling we’ve fought all day.”
On the other hand, Allmendinger said to Joey Logano in the FOX booth, “I don’t think we have enough speed to win the race.”
Allmendinger restarted second next to Hill with 24 laps to go. Hill just barely edged him out for the lead, leaving Allmendinger to deal with SVG looking for his second consecutive win of the season. With 23 laps to go, van Gisbergen passed Allmendinger on the inside just before the start/finish line. Allmendinger started to lose momentum as he slid all over the track, trying to find grip while he gave the last stretch of racing his all.
AJ Allmendinger heading onto the track for a short practice session at Sonoma Raceway on Friday. (Photo: Aaron Brink | The Podium Finish)
After a quick caution and restart on Lap 67, Allmendinger’s day turned sour when he was spun around by Sheldon Creed in Turn 7. Creed locked up his tires racing into the corner too quickly and took Allmendinger out, luckily not resulting in any damage or a caution flag. This relegated Allmendinger all the way back to 23rd.
Allmendinger was able to crawl his way up to 17th by the time the checkered flag waved; a disappointing finish to a very rough day for the No. 16 Kaulig Racing crew.
Next Saturday, the NASCAR XFINITY Series heads to the Midwest, taking on Iowa Speedway for the HyVee Perks 250 at 3:30 PM EST on USA Network.
