| NASCAR CUP SERIES BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY ROUND OF 16: ELIMINATION RACE TEAM CHEVY POST-QUALIFYING REPORT SEPTEMBER 12, 2025 |
| MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race AdvancesChevrolet Newsroom |
· For the first time this season, AJ Allmendinger topped the NASCAR Cup Series’ qualifying leaderboard – posting a best-lap of 15.177 seconds, at 126.930 mph, in his No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet to claim the pole position for tomorrow’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. · This marks Chevrolet’s 11th pole win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, with Allmendinger becoming the seventh driver from the fourth different Chevrolet organization to drive the manufacturer to a pole-winning lap in 2025. · The feat – Allmendinger’s fifth all-time in his NASCAR Cup Series career – marks Kaulig Racing’s first-ever pole triumph on an oval configuration in the division. · The top-10 of the starting lineup for tomorrow’s Round of 16 elimination race will see eight playoff contenders, including a pair of Hendrick Motorsports teammates, Kyle Larson and William Byron, who drove their Chevrolet-powered machines to fifth- and seventh-place qualifying efforts, respectively. |
| TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 STARTING LINEUPPOS. DRIVER 1st – AJ Allmendinger5th – Kyle Larson7th – William Byron  Chevrolet’s season statistics heading into the 29th NASCAR Cup Series race of the season: Wins: 12Poles: 11Top-Fives: 54Top 10s: 115Stage Wins: 22 |
AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet – Pole Winner Quotes You told me a couple weeks ago that as long as you’re having fun and Matt Kaulig wants you to do this, you’re going to keep doing this for him in some capacity. Are days like this the reminder that it is still fun for you? “Yeah, I know it’s Friday night qualifying and at the end of the day, that doesn’t pay any points or money, but it’s small victories like this for our race team that’s continually trying to grow. I’ve been super proud of all the men and women at Kaulig Racing this year. It’s tough in the Cup Series. Sometimes the results don’t show speed that you’re bringing to the racetrack and at a racetrack maybe that we ran 28th at last year, we run 15th this year, things like that. So, yeah, days like today are enjoyable and gives me confidence because I feel like I can still do it. And at the end of the day, anybody that knows me knows I’m by far the hardest on myself and I’m always going to be like that. That’s never going to change. So, days like today are important to me, as well, because it proves that I can be here. You talked about how much work has gone on behind the scenes. Do you feel like this team is making gains, even if it’s incremental to get closer to where you want to be?“Yeah, I mean, you take Darlington two weeks ago; to go run top-five at Darlington, a racetrack that I’ve never been amazing at. The only thing that’s been tough this year is some of the races that we’ve had a lot of speed at, and a lot of teams can say this I’m sure, but the ones that we’ve been really quick at, we’ve had some bad things happen really out of our control. So, sometimes you don’t get those results and it’s hard to go back to the shop and smile about it and know that you’re making progress. But at the end of the day, we’ve made a lot of progress over the last two years of me driving the Cup car of the speed that we got. Matt Kaulig has put a lot more resources into it. Obviously, Chris (Rice) has got a lot of work on his plate between the Xfinity side of it and the Cup side of it. With Ty (Norris) here and then Mike Cook being here as our competition director. So, yeah, we’re making progress. We know we’ve got a long ways to go, but days like today show we can go do it.” Was there much, if any, tire wear and or fall off? Do you think that’s indicative of what will happen tomorrow?“We ran 60 laps today. They weren’t all consecutive. We made a couple of changes to make the car better. That’s what gave me confidence going into qualifying. Our last change, I felt like we had a lot of speed. There is a little bit of fall off, but at least my car was good enough, so it never felt like there was a cliff there of the tires all of a sudden going to hit that cliff and basically unravel or start really falling off. Looking at the tires, they had wear on them, but they weren’t extreme. It’s like one of those things — in the spring here, we ran 25 laps and it looked like the tires were falling apart. Then we ran 160 on them in the race. So, I’m not sure what to expect. I just think, like anything, if you’ve got a good balance, you can manage the tires.” The plan is for them to put the PJ-1 back down or reapply it tomorrow early afternoon. Is that what you would want, or do you think you have any preference on what they do? “I don’t mind it if they reapply it, just more for a consistency’s sake. I think in the past, when they don’t reapply it, you get the Xfinity rubber out there and it starts clumping. You start hitting patches that have grip and then don’t have grip, which makes it real difficult. So, I don’t mind them reapplying it. I think it’s more, just like anything, 500 laps around here, eventually, we’ll get the top rolling. I know we tried in practice there and never could get enough rubber laid down to make a huge difference. But I think the Xfinity cars will get up there pretty quick. I think that’s more important for the racing, is if we get the top line going. I do think, it may not at the beginning of the race, but I do think eventually we’ll get the top lane rolling.” Do you have a sense of when that top lane will start opening up?“That’s a good question. I think in that first stage, as the tires start falling off. I’ve always looked at it — you need the pace to get to a 15.8, 15.9 to start making the top work and make a difference. Anything other than that, it’s tough to get the top rolling fast enough. The first stage, I think it’s 125 laps, 130 laps around there. I would assume that you start getting 70, 80, 90 laps in the run, if you catch traffic or if you just get stuck behind somebody; eventually you have to get up there. As you get more rubber laid down, then it stays consistent up there. I would be shocked if we don’t have guys running the top lane by the end of the first stage and the good cars making it work.” When you were talking to TV, you made a big point to explain how it’s awesome to get the pole here at Bristol. I was just curious, in your own words, can you expand upon that a little bit?“I haven’t had a pole in 10 years, I guess. I got told about that (laughs). It’s pretty cool. It’s Kaulig Racing’s first-ever pole on an oval in the Cup Series, I think. It’s a big deal. Like I said, it’s not something to get — we haven’t won the race. We’re not going to go party tonight and celebrate that we’re on pole. You also can’t just gloss it over and say, it’s just a pole, it doesn’t mean anything. To me, it shows that, on a confidence side of it, on a self-confidence, like, hey, you can still go out there and wheel for a lap and make it happen with the best of them. And then as a race team, it shows like, hey, we can build fast Chevy’s and we can go get it right and we can qualify up front. We got 500 laps and that’s a completely different ball game tomorrow night. We’ll be refocused, but we at least got to celebrate a little bit in the sense of have pride for ourselves. And all the men and women back at the shop, it’s tough to do, and at a place like this especially. So, yeah, it’s pretty cool.” I know you just talked about Kaulig Racing a little bit and how much it means for you and the organization, but could you talk about how much this means for the future a little bit more, and then also, would you have ever guessed that it was at Bristol? “To answer the second part of that question — I guess a little bit because we qualified eighth here in the spring, and we had a horrible practice and only ran a couple of laps. So, the speed is there. Now, if you just said Darlington, that would probably be the shocking one to me in qualifying. I’m not a great qualifier at Darlington. But at the end of the day, like I said, there’s a happy medium. You don’t want to make too much of it because it’s just a pole on a Friday night. But you also don’t want to demote it and say that it doesn’t mean anything because it does. I can tell you the people at the racetrack, the men and women here, were pumped up about it, and I can tell you at the shop, they’re probably over the top about it. So, yes, it means a lot. It’d be even cooler if we could go run inside the top-10 all night, tomorrow night, and maybe have a chance to win.” |
| NASCAR CUP SERIESBRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAYROUND OF 16: ELIMINATION RACETEAM CHEVY POST-QUALIFYING REPORTSEPTEMBER 12, 2025 |
Allmendinger Puts Chevrolet on the Pole at Bristol Motor Speedway |
| MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race AdvancesChevrolet Newsroom |
· For the first time this season, AJ Allmendinger topped the NASCAR Cup Series’ qualifying leaderboard – posting a best-lap of 15.177 seconds, at 126.930 mph, in his No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet to claim the pole position for tomorrow’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. · This marks Chevrolet’s 11th pole win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, with Allmendinger becoming the seventh driver from the fourth different Chevrolet organization to drive the manufacturer to a pole-winning lap in 2025. · The feat – Allmendinger’s fifth all-time in his NASCAR Cup Series career – marks Kaulig Racing’s first-ever pole triumph on an oval configuration in the division. · The top-10 of the starting lineup for tomorrow’s Round of 16 elimination race will see eight playoff contenders, including a pair of Hendrick Motorsports teammates, Kyle Larson and William Byron, who drove their Chevrolet-powered machines to fifth- and seventh-place qualifying efforts, respectively. |
| TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 STARTING LINEUPPOS. DRIVER 1st – AJ Allmendinger5th – Kyle Larson7th – William Byron Chevrolet’s season statistics heading into the 29th NASCAR Cup Series race of the season: Wins: 12Poles: 11Top-Fives: 54Top 10s: 115Stage Wins: 22 |
AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet – Pole Winner Quotes You told me a couple weeks ago that as long as you’re having fun and Matt Kaulig wants you to do this, you’re going to keep doing this for him in some capacity. Are days like this the reminder that it is still fun for you? “Yeah, I know it’s Friday night qualifying and at the end of the day, that doesn’t pay any points or money, but it’s small victories like this for our race team that’s continually trying to grow. I’ve been super proud of all the men and women at Kaulig Racing this year. It’s tough in the Cup Series. Sometimes the results don’t show speed that you’re bringing to the racetrack and at a racetrack maybe that we ran 28th at last year, we run 15th this year, things like that. So, yeah, days like today are enjoyable and gives me confidence because I feel like I can still do it. And at the end of the day, anybody that knows me knows I’m by far the hardest on myself and I’m always going to be like that. That’s never going to change. So, days like today are important to me, as well, because it proves that I can be here. You talked about how much work has gone on behind the scenes. Do you feel like this team is making gains, even if it’s incremental to get closer to where you want to be?“Yeah, I mean, you take Darlington two weeks ago; to go run top-five at Darlington, a racetrack that I’ve never been amazing at. The only thing that’s been tough this year is some of the races that we’ve had a lot of speed at, and a lot of teams can say this I’m sure, but the ones that we’ve been really quick at, we’ve had some bad things happen really out of our control. So, sometimes you don’t get those results and it’s hard to go back to the shop and smile about it and know that you’re making progress. But at the end of the day, we’ve made a lot of progress over the last two years of me driving the Cup car of the speed that we got. Matt Kaulig has put a lot more resources into it. Obviously, Chris (Rice) has got a lot of work on his plate between the Xfinity side of it and the Cup side of it. With Ty (Norris) here and then Mike Cook being here as our competition director. So, yeah, we’re making progress. We know we’ve got a long ways to go, but days like today show we can go do it.” Was there much, if any, tire wear and or fall off? Do you think that’s indicative of what will happen tomorrow?“We ran 60 laps today. They weren’t all consecutive. We made a couple of changes to make the car better. That’s what gave me confidence going into qualifying. Our last change, I felt like we had a lot of speed. There is a little bit of fall off, but at least my car was good enough, so it never felt like there was a cliff there of the tires all of a sudden going to hit that cliff and basically unravel or start really falling off. Looking at the tires, they had wear on them, but they weren’t extreme. It’s like one of those things — in the spring here, we ran 25 laps and it looked like the tires were falling apart. Then we ran 160 on them in the race. So, I’m not sure what to expect. I just think, like anything, if you’ve got a good balance, you can manage the tires.” The plan is for them to put the PJ-1 back down or reapply it tomorrow early afternoon. Is that what you would want, or do you think you have any preference on what they do? “I don’t mind it if they reapply it, just more for a consistency’s sake. I think in the past, when they don’t reapply it, you get the Xfinity rubber out there and it starts clumping. You start hitting patches that have grip and then don’t have grip, which makes it real difficult. So, I don’t mind them reapplying it. I think it’s more, just like anything, 500 laps around here, eventually, we’ll get the top rolling. I know we tried in practice there and never could get enough rubber laid down to make a huge difference. But I think the Xfinity cars will get up there pretty quick. I think that’s more important for the racing, is if we get the top line going. I do think, it may not at the beginning of the race, but I do think eventually we’ll get the top lane rolling.” Do you have a sense of when that top lane will start opening up?“That’s a good question. I think in that first stage, as the tires start falling off. I’ve always looked at it — you need the pace to get to a 15.8, 15.9 to start making the top work and make a difference. Anything other than that, it’s tough to get the top rolling fast enough. The first stage, I think it’s 125 laps, 130 laps around there. I would assume that you start getting 70, 80, 90 laps in the run, if you catch traffic or if you just get stuck behind somebody; eventually you have to get up there. As you get more rubber laid down, then it stays consistent up there. I would be shocked if we don’t have guys running the top lane by the end of the first stage and the good cars making it work.” When you were talking to TV, you made a big point to explain how it’s awesome to get the pole here at Bristol. I was just curious, in your own words, can you expand upon that a little bit?“I haven’t had a pole in 10 years, I guess. I got told about that (laughs). It’s pretty cool. It’s Kaulig Racing’s first-ever pole on an oval in the Cup Series, I think. It’s a big deal. Like I said, it’s not something to get — we haven’t won the race. We’re not going to go party tonight and celebrate that we’re on pole. You also can’t just gloss it over and say, it’s just a pole, it doesn’t mean anything. To me, it shows that, on a confidence side of it, on a self-confidence, like, hey, you can still go out there and wheel for a lap and make it happen with the best of them. And then as a race team, it shows like, hey, we can build fast Chevy’s and we can go get it right and we can qualify up front. We got 500 laps and that’s a completely different ball game tomorrow night. We’ll be refocused, but we at least got to celebrate a little bit in the sense of have pride for ourselves. And all the men and women back at the shop, it’s tough to do, and at a place like this especially. So, yeah, it’s pretty cool.” I know you just talked about Kaulig Racing a little bit and how much it means for you and the organization, but could you talk about how much this means for the future a little bit more, and then also, would you have ever guessed that it was at Bristol? “To answer the second part of that question — I guess a little bit because we qualified eighth here in the spring, and we had a horrible practice and only ran a couple of laps. So, the speed is there. Now, if you just said Darlington, that would probably be the shocking one to me in qualifying. I’m not a great qualifier at Darlington. But at the end of the day, like I said, there’s a happy medium. You don’t want to make too much of it because it’s just a pole on a Friday night. But you also don’t want to demote it and say that it doesn’t mean anything because it does. I can tell you the people at the racetrack, the men and women here, were pumped up about it, and I can tell you at the shop, they’re probably over the top about it. So, yes, it means a lot. It’d be even cooler if we could go run inside the top-10 all night, tomorrow night, and maybe have a chance to win.” |