A.J. Allmendinger believed “there was no way” he’d be in NASCAR Cup for almost 20 years

Mexico City is a big opportunity for several drivers hunting their first win of the 2025 season. There’s home hero Daniel Suarez, Supercars ace Shane van Gisbergen, and road course specialist A.J. Allmendinger who can all realistically win on Sunday.

Only three drivers taking part in this weekend’s Cup race raced at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez when the Xfinity Series visited there between 2005 and 2008 (Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin), but Allmendinger has still raced here before in his Champ Car days. He finished third in the 2004 Mexico City race before placing second in 2005.

“It’s kind of crazy to me that it’s been 20 years,” said Allmendinger in an interview with Motorsport.com’s Luis Ramírez. “I mean, I guess I’m fortunate enough that 20 years later, I get to come back and still be doing this. I’m super pumped by it. I will always remember the atmosphere back in the Champ Car races. So I can’t imagine what it’s gonna be like to have a Cup race there. The crowd and the pre-race — everything that goes with it. I always love that race track. It’s such a beautiful race track, and obviously a little bit different layout from the last time I (was) there, but it’s gonna be a lot of fun and there’s been a lot of build-up for it. So if you can make the weather nice when we get there, that’d be fantastic. But other than that, I can’t wait to get there.”

Fighting for points versus going for the win

As it stands, Allmendinger is just 18 points out of the playoffs, but a win would guarantee him a spot in the ten-race championship fight. And with four road courses this summer, beginning with Mexico City he will have plenty of opportunities. 

However, he doesn’t see himself in a must-win situation just yet due to his points position, saying: “As of right now, it’s not just based on having a win, I don’t think. Now you know, you never know who wins. You know, like SVG  (Van Gisbergen, who is 33rd in points) comes and wins this race and that knocks a spot out — things like that. But the way I look at it, in the moment we talk right now — no, points are still an option to make the playoffs. It’s nice to be able to talk about that we’re on the kind of the cut line of it. Of course, we look at the road courses, we know that these are good opportunities for us to go and win the races.”

However, it’s no guarantee either. The rest of the field is catching up to these road racing specialists and Allmendinger admitted that it is “super challenging” to win.

Can Kaulig win an oval race in 2025?

AJ Allmendinger, Kaulig Racing Chevrolet

Photo by: Jeffrey Vest / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

But Allmendinger’s opportunity to visit Victory Lane may not be limited to road courses, despite all three of his Cup wins coming at such tracks. Just last month, he pulled off an impressive fourth place in the Coca-Cola 600 and is a proven winner on ovals in the Xfinity Series. 

“Ah, man, we’re trying, but you know, at Kaulig, we’re still a young Cup team,” said Allmendinger about winning at an oval this year. “I do feel like l’ve been fortunate over these last seven years on the Xfinity side of it, (showing) that I can drive on ovals. I mean, heck, we’ve won on every type of oval. We’ve won on a short track, mile-and-a-half, two-mile racetrack, superspeedway. So I feel like l’ve shown that (in) oval racing, I can be there and I can do it, but it’s tough, and we’re growing as an organization. So weekends like the Coke 600 — it shows when we execute, we can run up front with the best of them. So maybe this year is (it) but we’re just going to keep pushing and trying to maximize every weekend.”

Allmendinger is quietly one of the most versatile drivers in NASCAR, considering his success in not just stock cars, but also open-wheel and sports car racing. He has been in and out of the Cup Series several times since 2007 and now approaches 500 career starts. 

Still here, still competitive 

AJ Allmendinger, Kaulig Racing Chevrolet

Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images

As the 43-year-old reflected on his career, he said the early years in NASCAR “was almost trying to learn how to walk again. And I kind of got shoved right into it with Red Bull. I would never change it, but I didn’t have any experience in stock car racing. And they went right to Cup. We probably were trying to do it in, I wouldn’t say the most competitive era, but it definitely had the most cars right there. My first two years, we had 50 to 56 cars trying to qualify for the race every week. So that was difficult. We went to it when there were two cars — the COT car was coming in the sport (and) the old car was still there. So I think for several years, I felt like I was just always a rookie, like even three or four years into it, I felt like I was still just learning how to drive the cars.

“And there was a part of me … whether it was practice, testing, qualifying, laps during the race, it was to a point where I was like, God, I just gotta prove that I still belong here, that I do belong here. And to be quite honest with you, there’s probably still a part of that mentality in me where I’m always just trying to prove it to myself. Heck, my guys are always like, ‘well, you got nothing to prove anymore. You just keep doing what you’re doing.’ I’m like, no, no, no, I gotta prove it to myself every weekend that I belong here. So it was tough. But if you’d have told me back in 2007, 2008 — oh, hey, by the way, in 2025 you’re still going to be in the Cup series, and you’re still going to be doing this and still be competitive, I’d have told you you’re crazy, because I felt like there was no way I was going to be in the sport that long. So I feel very fortunate.”

In 2025, nine different drivers have won their way into the playoffs, leaving seven more spots with 11 races left in the regular season. Kaulig Racing has never actually made the Cup playoffs before, and Allmendinger hasn’t been a part of it since 2014. And in case you were wondering how he made the playoffs that year, it was via a road course win.