NASCAR CUP SERIES WATKINS GLEN INTERNATIONAL TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES MAY 9, 2026 |
AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at Watkins Glen International. | MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race AdvancesChevrolet Newsroom |
NASCAR CUP SERIESWATKINS GLEN INTERNATIONAL TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTESMAY 9, 2026 |
AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at Watkins Glen International. | MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race AdvancesChevrolet Newsroom |
Media Availability Quotes: WHERE DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU STACK UP RIGHT NOW ON ROAD COURSES? “I mean, I have to be better, you know, but I think as a race team, we got to be better as well, but I’m always going to put that on my shoulders. You know, there’s no secret SVG (Shane Van Gisbergen) is dominant right now on the Cup side of it. Obviously, Connor (Zilisch), I think is going to be really good, but there’s um, so many guys now and teams that focus on the road courses. I mean I felt like, you know, 10 years ago or whatever, you could kind of show up and you’re going to run top 10 if you didn’t make any mistakes. And you know, you’d be happy with that and move on. And that’s not the way it works now. So, I’m continually trying to figure out how to be better, you know, how to make our race cars better. The ultimate goal is always to show up and try to win these races, but with that said, If we could come here and run inside the top seven, top eight, it’s going to be interesting stage wise because at COTA felt like we made the decision early in the race, hey, we’re probably not going to win, so let’s go maximize the points. It’s so much tougher to pass here than COTA. So that strategy of what we’re doing, we’ll have to figure out kind of after qualifying and see where we stack up speed-wise, but I think we’re going to be better. I mean, it’s frustrating to struggle a little bit and not have the exact speed that we want, but we just keep fighting. So, I’m always going to put it on my shoulders. I need to be better for us.” SO WE’RE 11 RACES IN. YOU’RE 20TH IN POINTS. IF I WERE TO HAVE TOLD YOU THAT AT DAYTONA, GOING INTO THE YEAR WITH WHAT YOU GUYS HAVE OR MAYBE WHAT YOU GUYS DON’T HAVE, WHAT WOULD YOUR REACTION HAVE BEEN? “Oh, that’s a good question because I don’t know what it’s……this is what’s tough. I don’t know what expectations should be. I guess in a way, we don’t really have any because we’re just trying to make it better. You know, I feel like there’s only been one race this year and that was Kansas when we got spun on pit road that probably cost us 15 spots because that was unfortunate in the sense that we had a pretty good car there and we were going to run I thought 12th to 15th. But everybody can say that throughout the course of the year of losing points. I feel like we’re okay. We just, it’s, it kind of goes back to that truck comment. It’s like, you know, even like last week, it’s like we just, we don’t have enough raw speed in the car to go out there and get to the next grouping of cars, which I feel like is that 10th to 15th. So we’re trying to do that, but, I’ve been proud of the cars we built. You know, I think there’s really been one race this year – and a lot of that was the aero change, and not having anything to go off of and Darlington, where we just, I mean, we struggled from start to finish. So I expected having weekends like that but we’ve only truly had one just outright bad weekend of just struggling on speed and not really being in the ball game. So, you know, I think if we can go look at it over the next 10 races and we get done with those 10 and we’re a lot better than we were the previous 10, that’s what we can be happy with now. Now, where that puts us in points, I don’t know, but, you know, I’ve tried to really focus on making sure we run all the laps that we can and we don’t take ourselves out and I feel like we’ve done a really good job of that. I feel bad because our pit stops and our pit crew right now is one of the best in the business. And we’re not taking advantage of it. So I feel bad for those guys, but they’re doing a great job as well. So, yeah, I mean, it’s, if we can stay in the top 20 through the rest of the year, I mean, that’s a good year for us.” DID YOU GIVE NASCAR FEEDBACK ON THE TIRE PACKS AND OR THAT TIRE BARRIER THAT THEY ADDED FOR THIS WEEKEND? “Yeah, Jeff Burton reached out about it. I didn’t really have a good answer. I thought it was fine. It definitely tightens up, you know, the carousel is really tied on exit. You know, we’ll see if one of these 2 races where there’s contact off the carousel and, you know, if that makes the car bounce back into the racetrack, I think looking at that tire barrier, that’s the only question I got. I don’t mind that it takes away room because you give race car drivers room, we’re going to use it all. But I thought it was fine. Like, there was enough room off turn one where we could be 2 or 3 wide and still have just enough room. So overall, I honestly didn’t have a good answer of like anything that they can improve.” |