No. 16 Celsius Chevrolet Camaro
AJ Allmendinger qualified fifth for the Focused Health 250 at COTA.
After two cars were sent to the rear, Allmendinger started on the front row along side his teammate, Shane van Gisbergen. The No. 16 fell back on the initial start but quickly regained second position. Allmendinger ran in second to his teammate until lap 10 when the No. 16 took the lead. The team pit on lap 12 for four tires and fuel. Allmendinger came off pit road in eighth, where he finished the opening stage.
Allmendinger restarted the second stage in first place and maintained the lead, battling with the No. 17 and No. 97, until lap 28 when he came to pit road. The No. 16 came off pit road in fourth place where he finished the second stage.
Allmendinger restarted in first place with 13 laps remaining. He battled with his teammate in the No. 97 before falling to second on lap 38. The caution came out with four laps to go, Allmendinger was running second, reporting he was lacking grip. On the first NASCAR overtime attempt, Allmendinger restarted in second on the inside line behind the No. 97. In turn one, the No. 16 was shuffled back to sixth but made it back up to third before the caution came out again. Allmendinger received a course penalty and would start at the tail end of the longest line for the second overtime attempt. The team came down pit road for four tires and fuel before restarting in 26th. Allmendinger drove back through the field to finish 10th in the Focus Health 250 at COTA.
“Not the ending we wanted. We had a really solid day, I’m proud of everyone on the 16 car for digging and trying to make it better after practice and qualifying yesterday. I was really happy with the speed we had, we missed the last run there by a little bit which was going to cost us winning the race, but we were going to finish second and it was going to be a Kaulig one-two. With these late race restarts, you have to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. We came out on the wrong end, but we fought hard and happy to restart at the back on the last restart and come back to a 10th place finish.”
- AJ Allmendinger
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
