Let’s not mince phrases: Kaulig Racing tapping A.J. Allmendinger for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Collection season isn’t a foul factor.
Even at 42, the road-course ace is a confirmed Cup Collection winner, and when the circuit visits a street course, he is all however assured to contend for the win.
Nevertheless, this marks the third consecutive season wherein Allmendinger and Kaulig Racing are enjoying musical chairs with Allmendinger’s future. Allmendinger was full-time within the Cup Collection in 2023, went all the way down to the Xfinity Collection for 2024 and now is aware of he’ll be again on the highest stage of NASCAR full-time in 2025.
Allmendinger can credit score the second wind of NASCAR profession to the staff, however whereas the announcement of his return in 2025 needs to be celebrated, it additionally exposes the group’s greatest situation.
Each time Kaulig relocates Allmendinger — or any of its different drivers resembling Daniel Hemric, whose state of affairs with the staff is rocky heading into 2025 — to a brand new collection, it continues to kick the can additional down the street. With a 33-year-old Hemric producing mediocre Cup Collection outcomes for Kaulig in 2024 after an underwhelming tenure with its Xfinity Collection program, there’s little younger expertise to talk of inside the partitions of Kaulig Racing.
It could have the uber-talented Shane van Gisbergen driving its Xfinity Collection vehicles this season, however it is going to doubtless be Trackhouse Racing who snatches him for Cup Collection duties in 2025. Allmendinger shifting again as much as the Cup Collection additionally means the staff might want to discover not less than one new full-time Xfinity Collection driver, if not two or three. van Gisbergen is predicted to affix Allmendinger within the Cup Collection in 2025, and Josh Williams’ poor efficiency has many questioning if the 31-year-old will return to the staff subsequent season.
Except for van Gisbergen’s three Xfinity Collection wins, the staff’s efficiency in each the Cup and Xfinity Collection has been middling as Allmendinger sits sixth in Xfinity Collection factors. Williams sits a distant 18th whereas Hemric at the moment sits thirtieth within the Cup Collection standings.
Allmendinger and van Gisbergen have given Kaulig’s No. 16 automobile a lift of their part-time efforts this 12 months, however the automobile nonetheless sits thirty third in house owners factors out of 36 full-time entries. Williams, Ty Dillon and Derek Kraus have bore little fruit of their Cup begins this 12 months whereas the staff’s “trophy-hunting” automobile within the Xfinity Collection has solely yielded two top-10 finishes in six begins.
Kaulig’s greatest downside? Its lack of younger expertise has led them to proceed to rehash grizzled veterans who merely aren’t on the high of their sport. Hemric could also be an Xfinity Collection champion, however his second stint within the Cup Collection has been worse than his first. Allmendinger could also be Kaulig’s finest likelihood at Cup Collection success, however even he appears to have misplaced a step this season.
With 20-year-old Daniel Dye doubtlessly being the staff’s solely long-term hope, it is time for Kaulig to fireside up LinkedIn and begin searching for driving candidates. Or its long-term future could also be stuffed with one-year offers and a brief record of accomplishments.
