A.J. Allmendinger extends road course dominance with Pit Boss 250 win

It is no secret that A.J. Allmendinger is one of the top road course drivers not just in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, but in stock car racing as a whole. The former open-wheel racer and sports car veteran bolstered this image in Saturday’s Pit Boss 250 at Circuit of the Americas when he took the lead with fourteen laps remaining and never looked back as he scored his Xfinity-record seventh road course victory. When combined with his two career Cup Series wins, his nine national series road triumphs are tied with Jeff Gordon for the most in history.

Pole winner Ty Gibbs led the opening lap before Ross Chastain did so. Allmendinger, who was a team-mate of Chastain at Kaulig Racing before Chastain moved up to the Cup Series, claimed the lead on lap four and led to the stage win ahead of Alex Labbé, Daniel Hemric, Parker Kligerman, Justin Allgaier, Preston Pardus, Jade Buford, Parker Chase, Jeremy Clements, and Gibbs.

Chastain continued to lead throughout Stage #2 while fellow Cup driver Bubba Wallace worked his way through the order to catch him. Wallace, who frequently saw little success on road courses, remained on Chastain’s tail before a transmission issue caused him to fall off pace and out of the order. With a lap before the stage’s conclusion, Chastain pitted and the lead cycled to Sam Mayer who won his first stage ahead of Buford. Allgaier, Josh Berry, Riley Herbst, Cole Custer, Sage Karam, Chastain, Allmendinger, and Noah Gragson followed, though Custer received a speeding penalty on his stop that bumped Scott Heckert into the top ten.

A pair of debris cautions highlighted the final stage, the first of which came after just one lap of racing. Allmendinger took the lead from Chastain on said lap. A debris caution came out with nine laps remaining, but Allmendinger kept his ground and was unbeatable as he secured his first win of 2022 and eleventh in the Xfinity Series.

Allmendinger’s seven Xfinity road course wins have come across six different tracks: COTA, the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval (thrice), Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (twice), and Road America (once). Although he has yet to win an Xfinity race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway‘s infield road course or Watkins Glen International, both of his Cup victories came at those venues.

“I told myself yesterday I was not happy with where I put ourselves,” Allmendinger commented. “All these men and women here at Kaulig Racing, between the Cup side of it and the Xfinity side of it, they don’t sleep during the week. They’re busting their tails and that’s why I’m so freaking hard on myself sometimes because they deserve to win more than anybody here. I just want to do it for them. Thankfully, we got it done today.”

With their performances, Allmendinger, Austin Hill (finished second), Gragson (fourth), and Mayer (fifth) qualified for the first leg of the Dash 4 Cash at Richmond Raceway next Saturday.

While Allmendinger celebrated his victory, others were not as pleased with their races. Josh Bilicki was spun by Brandon Jones, and voiced his frustration on social media by tweeting that he would “be upset too if I was running lap times outside of the top 20 in a Joe Gibbs car. Doesn’t justify what the 19 did to us though. Wrecked us on a fricken straightaway!”

“Dude used his bumper on me multiple times and pushed me off track when we were side by side,” he followed. “I use my bumper on him, didn’t even come close to spinning him, and he retaliates by dumping me on a straight. Pathetic! Sadly I don’t have a daddy that can pay for the damage like him.”

Bilicki’s remark about Jones’ father refers to J.R. Jones being a longtime supporter of his son’s racing career. Jones, who races for one of the top Xfinity teams in Joe Gibbs Racing, ended his day in eighteenth. Fellow driver Cody Ware backed up Bilicki’s testimony in a deleted tweet as he recalled the 2017 Mid-Ohio race in which he was “dumped by Jones when I was running top 10 for [Mike Harmon Racing] […] Passed him on the GWC clean and he proceeded to dump me. Must be pretty tough when you get out run by teams 1/100th of the budget”.

Tommy Joe Martins, who employs Bilicki at Alpha Prime Racing, was also critical of Jones as he remarked, “Let it be known @joshbilicki drove from 34th to the top15 in 5 laps on scuffs. The reward was getting dumped on a straightaway to finish 35th. And btw for those curious the difference between 18th & 35th is $7,600 + the damage to our racecar & my guys having to bust their asses to fix it.”

Martins later added he spoke with Jones on the matter to ensure it was not “just a bs Twitter beef. He was mad & I was frustrated too. We’ll get over it. Another race next week. Just gotta get this 45 (Bilicki) back in the points where it should be.”

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	4	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	46	Running
2	8	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	46	Running
3	3	07	Cole Custer*	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	46	Running
4	12	9	Noah Gragson	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	46	Running
5	10	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	46	Running
6	21	31	Myatt Snider	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	46	Running
7	13	02	Brett Moffitt	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	46	Running
8	16	48	Jade Buford	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	46	Running
9	17	88	Miguel Paludo	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	46	Running
10	6	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	46	Running
11	35	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	46	Running
12	11	35	Parker Kligerman*	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Toyota	46	Running
13	18	23	Anthony Alfredo	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	46	Running
14	7	91	Preston Pardus	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	46	Running
15	1	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	46	Running
16	24	44	Sage Karam	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	46	Running
17	2	92	Ross Chastain*	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	46	Running
18	38	19	Brandon Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	46	Running
19	23	26	Parker Chase	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	46	Running
20	28	68	Brandon Brown	Brandonbilt Motorsports	Chevrolet	46	Running
21	33	99	Stefan Parsons	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	46	Running
22	30	28	Patrick Gallagher	RSS Racing	Ford	46	Running
23	20	27	Jeb Burton	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	46	Running
24	26	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	46	Running
25	19	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	46	Running
26	22	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	46	Running
27	25	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	46	Running
28	15	18	Bubba Wallace*	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	46	Running
29	36	66	J.J. Yeley	MBM Motorsports	Ford	46	Running
30	34	6	Ryan Vargas	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	46	Running
31	14	10	Landon Cassill	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	46	Running
32	32	5	Scott Heckert	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	46	Running
33	9	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	46	Running
34	31	08	Joe Graf Jr.	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	46	Running
35	27	45	Josh Bilicki	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	46	Running
36	5	36	Alex Labbé	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	41	Rear Gear
37	37	38	Will Rodgers	RSS Racing	Ford	34	Running
38	29	4	Bayley Currey	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	13	Engine
DNQ		47	Brennan Poole	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet
DNQ		52	Gar Robinson	Jimmy Means Racing	Chevrolet
DNQ		78	Josh Williams	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet
DNQ		34	Jesse Iwuji	Jesse Iwuji Motorsports	Chevrolet

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for Xfinity points