NASCAR CUP SERIES
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
DAYTONA 500 MEDIA DAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES
FEBRUARY 12, 2025
AJ Allmendinger, driver of the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet – DAYTONA 500 Media Day Quotes
The Indy 500 and the Daytona 500. What is the difference between the two of them?
“Where do you start? When it comes to the Daytona 500, just that pack racing. You’re constantly side by side. The Indy 500, the year I ran it, the way the aero was you’d make big runs and stuff, but you’re not side by side constantly. So, I think that to me is the bigger difference of the way you race those races. To me, you still have to be pinpoint accurate in either car. The consequences are really high in both cars if you make a mistake. I think the stress to a certain degree of not having to be side by side at the Indy 500 constantly is a little bit easier. But you’re also running 50 mph quicker.”
Is the atmosphere similar?
“It is. To me, we all love motorsports but there are a handful of races that you can say to somebody that’s not a motorsports person they know exactly what it is. These two races you could argue the four biggest races in the world you can put up Monaco, you could put up Le Mans maybe. The energy of this race is you build up to it and as you walk out and they announce you, at least for me, is the same emotion.”
Were you Helio’s teammate?
“I was.”
How do you think he’s going to do here?
“Helio is all time, right? He’s a legend. I know it’s bene a long time ago, but it’s not like he hasn’t done this before in IROC cars. I think the biggest thing is he’ll have to get used to the draft in the sense of how these cars move around, the runs you get, just trying to get up to speed in that sense. But driving around the racetrack and all that he’s completely fine. But you’re not going to really know that until you get in the Duel and especially in the 500 when you get 40-41 cars together.”
Are you annoyed he’s shown up and you’re going head-to-head for best hair?
“I can just tell you mine is not colored, so I don’t know who has more product in it but mine’s got less coloring in it.”
What’s something that you’ve seen the team doing to try to rebound and get back to race-winning form?
“There were certain reasons last year the Cup program had to take a step back. I don’t say that in the sense that we didn’t care about it or didn’t try. Everybody was still working as hard as they could, but there weren’t as many resources being put into to. The biggest difficulty I thought was for Daniel because he didn’t have a constant teammate every weekend. We were switching guys in the car, so it really hurt Daniel and that’s what I was most disappointed in to not be in the car. I felt that every time I got in the car, he ran a lot better, and we were able to work well off each other. More resources being put into it, Mike Cook is our technical director. It’s the first time we’ve had the competition technical director not be a crew chief. Just adding resources and Ty being here, I think it’s his best opportunity. He brings a lot of experience. I think it allows us to work with RCR even closer, which as a group – not just on our end but on RCR’s end – we have to do that to go against the big teams. We’ll find out 10 races in if it helps, but it’s definitely the most effort and most prepared I’ve seen our Cup program be.”
Was that part of the agreement you got to bring resources to be running full time in a Cup car?
“I’ve said it from day one, whatever Matt and Chris want me to do that’s what I’m going to do. I made it clear last year I wanted to be in the Cup car full time, but they wanted me in the Xfinity side of it. I said if we’re doing this, we’re doing this real and Matt and Chris have done a lot. The effort’s there, the resources, everything. We still have a lot of work to do. The ultimate goal is you’re going out to win every race, but I think there are certain racetracks that running inside the top 20 is a good run for us. You just have to make more good races than bad. I have to be better to keep making us better. It’s a group effort but I take pride in the sense of like Phoenix in the Xfinity race last year. I was so disappointed in myself because I didn’t know what to do to make us better, so I’m always going to put it on me.”
How important is it to get off to a good start?
“I think it’s important, but here and Atlanta are somewhat out of your control. I’m still in the racecar making the decisions of being aggressive, not be aggressive, things like that. You can get through the first races inside the top 10, top five in points, win a race. But with that said, even if you do well it doesn’t mean your season is going to be great. If it goes bad and you get caught up in wrecks, it doesn’t mean the rest of your season is going to go bad or you’re going to run bad every race. It’s the nature of the way the season starts off with two superspeedway races in a row.”
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