Top Dog: AJ Allmendinger
The NASCAR Cup Series has featured plenty of road course ringers over the years.
In the mid-2010s into the early 2020s, the presence of a ringer nearly became extinct. As data became more accessible and finite, and drivers spent more time on simulators, the advantage of the ringers slipped away.
However, with the introduction of the Next Gen car for the 2022 season, the rise of the ringer has come around full circle, evidenced by the arrival of Shane van Gisbergen and select starts made by international stars like Kimi Raikkonen, Will Brown, and Jenson Button.
One driver who has been both a full-time driver and a road ace is AJ Allmendinger, the journeyman who got another Cup shot with Kaulig Racing in 2021, bouncing between part-time schedules, NASCAR Xfinity Series racing, and now, another full-time Cup slate in the team’s No. 16 Chevrolet.
When the Cup Series returned to the streets of Chicago for the annual Grant Park 165 on Sunday (July 6), Allmendinger had to be considered a favorite, even though his best finish was 17th in his previous two starts in The Windy City.
This time, Allmendinger finally found that elusive top 10, finishing sixth. Yet, that result may carry no weight, as van Gisbergen celebrated his second road course win of the year while Allmendinger hasn’t visited a Cup Series victory lane since 2023.
Allmendinger started in 16th, quickly dodging a yard sale on lap 4 when a Carson Hocevar incident off turn 10 led to a pileup.
After dodging the accident, Allmendinger drove up to eighth before pitting to flip the stage, finishing the opening frame in 13th.
The beginning of stage two presented a leg up for the veteran, as he got ahead of both van Gisbergen and Ty Gibbs to lead the drivers on his strategy. However, van Gisbergen reappeared in a flash, overtaking Allmendinger a couple of laps later.
The Los Gatos, Calif., native drove to third before a caution allowed him to restart on the front row. From there, his sights were set on van Gisbergen, chasing the New Zealander until both flipped the stage once again by pitting.
In the final stage, Allmendinger drove the wheels off his car, advancing from 10th all the way to third by the final caution on lap 65. Unfortunately, the strain on the tires took its toll, as Allmendinger slipped to sixth when the checkered flag flew.
Once the gatekeeper of road racing, the explosion of van Gisbergen on the scene has quieted Allmendinger on the road courses. In the nine head-to-head races between the two on road courses, van Gisbergen holds a six-to-three advantage, which includes two wins. Meanwhile, Allmendinger has been unable to reach victory lane since his Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL triumph in 2023.
If there’s consolation, Allmendinger does sit 18th on the playoff grid, 43 points out, with a realistic chance of pointing his way into the playoffs, something van Gisbergen would have been unable to do without winning.
Still, the question is worth asking: have we seen the passing of the torch of NASCAR’s leading road ringer?
Notable Underdog Runs
Richard Childress Racing fielded a third entry for its Xfinity regular, Austin Hill.
The result? Hill’s best Cup result and first career top 10 with a ninth-place finish.
The lap 4 pileup, combined with other drivers pitting allowed Hill to gain track position by the end of stage one, where he also finished ninth. He stayed out under the stage yellow to restart inside the top 10, managing his equipment while only sliding to 16th by the end of the second frame.
In the final stage, the inexperience was rarely manifested, as Hill held steady inside the top 15. Despite a racing incident with Christopher Bell, Hill kept his focus and brought his ride home for a stout top-10 result.
With Hill’s perennial success at the Xfinity level, as well as his progress in Cup, the time has to be approaching for him to potentially make the full-time jump to NASCAR’s premier level.
When Michael McDowell shifted over to Spire Motorsports this season, the veteran status at Front Row Motorsports fell on Todd Gilliland, still at the ripe age of 25. Gilliland also appeared to be the heir to McDowell’s road racing success, bringing some prowess of his own to the table.
However, his day was over before it started when he got sandwiched in the lap 4 crash, opening the door for Zane Smith to lead FRM when the dust settled in 14th.
Smith had a relatively unscathed day, with the exception of some contact with the turn 11 wall in stage two, scoring stage points in the opening run with an eighth-place result. Despite falling outside the top 20 after stage two, some timely yellows and solid pace in his car allowed the 26-year-old to rally for his fourth top 15 in the last six races.
The Huntington Beach, Calif., native also defeated Chris Buescher in the In-Season Challenge to advance to the Round of 8, and with Sonoma Raceway up next, we could be looking at a prime candidate for a deep Cinderella run.
Behind Smith was John Hunter Nemechek, rebounding from a topsy-turvy week at EchoPark Speedway to finish 15th. The Legacy Motor Club driver carried the torch for the excelling organization, scoring points in both stages with results of seventh and eighth.
On an overall solid day, Nemechek avoided major trouble to score the top 15, his third in the past four weeks. He also pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the In-Season Challenge, defeating last week’s winner Chase Elliott to set up a clash with his LMC teammate, Erik Jones.
Riley Herbst began his day by getting squeezed into the lap 4 melee, causing significant damage to his No. 35 Toyota.
Yet, he was able to clear minimum speed, and as his team worked on the car throughout the day, he survived a game of attrition to finish 17th in his first Cup start in Chicago, his first top 20 since Texas Motor Speedway in April.
Continuing the trend of comeback stories, how about Katherine Legge? Driving for Live Fast Motorsports this week, Legge outlasted Corey Heim in qualifying to race her way into the event as an open car.
Legge was running 24th on lap 40 when the back end came out from under her in turn 1, sending her into a spin. She also had a slight scuffle with Elliott, trading barbs on the track during the event. However, she kept plugging away in the final stage and eventually worked her way through the field to score her first career top 20.
Ultimately, the heartbreak award has to go to McDowell. With all the talk surrounding race favorite van Gisbergen, McDowell immediately asserted himself as the driver to beat early on, taking the lead from the very start and leading the first 31 laps.
In a brutal twist, McDowell reported a broken throttle cable under yellow on lap 32, forcing him behind the wall and dashing his hopes of playing spoiler. He finished 32nd, 22 laps down in a massive ‘what could have been.’
Underdog Power Rankings
1. Allmendinger (+2): While a sixth-place run was only a drop in the bucket for a driver looking to make the playoffs, Allmendinger nabbed a career-best finish on the streets of Chicago, a surprising fact given his road racing history. He will have another prime opportunity lock a playoff spot at Sonoma Raceway, where he finished sixth in his last two starts.
2. Jones (–): A 25th-place run halts Jones’ streak of six consecutive runs of 17th or better, but not known as a road course ace, things could have gone worse for the Byron, Mich. native. He will weather the storm once again at Sonoma in pursuit of a playoff spot, as his last top 10 there came all the way back in 2019.
3. Hocevar (-2): After a stellar qualifying result that landed Hocevar a starting spot on the second row, the Chicago winds turned against him quickly, as his lap 4 incident created a junkyard. It was another blow of misfortune that has plagued the speedy sophomore this season, and he will look to turn things around in Sonoma, where his lone start produced a finish of 17th last season.
4. Smith: As the summer continues to heat up, Smith continues to fly under the radar — even so to the point where he should be considered one of the most underrated drivers in the garage. A steady hand for FRM this season, Smith’s road racing skills aren’t too shabby either, and he will put them to the test once again in Sonoma, where he finished 16th a year ago.
5. Nemechek (–): Speaking of steady, Nemechek continues to progress in his second season with LMC. Three weeks after finishing sixth at Mexico City, the 28-year-old who once could be written off on road courses grabbed another top 15, giving him some momentum rolling into Sonoma. That will be much needed as he looks to improve upon a 37th-place showing at the California track a year ago.
Small Team Scheme of the Week
FRM brought the heat between the trio of its fleet to The Windy City, but maybe none more-so than Todd Gililland’s No. 38 Grillo’s Pickles Ford.\
With a unique livery to the typically all-green ride, the brand advertised it’s ‘hot pickles’ on Gilliland’s car, accommodated by flames on the sides of the car. Unfortunately, Gilliland was placed in a pickle when he was gobbled up in the lap 4 crash, relegating him to 38th.
Entering his fifth year with Frontstretch, Luken Glover is the author of The Underdog House, shedding light on the motivation and performance of NASCAR's dark horse teams as they strive to fight to the top. Additionally, Glover reports for the site at various events, and he contributes in the video editing department.
A 2023 graduate of the University of the Cumberlands, Glover is a middle school math and PE teacher, as well as a basketball coach. He is passionate about serving in his church, playing/coaching a wide variety of sports, and researching motorsports history.