NASCAR CUP SERIES
CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES
FEBRUARY 28, 2026
AJ Allmendinger, driver of the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet, met with the media onsite at Circuit of The Americas in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series’ third points-paying race of the 2026 season.
Media Availability Quotes:
There’s a lot of tire packs out there. What do you think about how that affects how you guys manage this course and what kind of damage could it do?
“A lot… especially through the esses, it’s going to be a lot of damage. I mean, I don’t mind them. It’s nice to have kind of the limitation. When you’re out there, I wouldn’t say you’re guessing, but you’re always on the edge of track limits. Especially in the race when you’re behind somebody, you can’t see in front of you. You just see the car. But yeah, in qualifying especially, it’s going to be, how close do you want to cut it? I think you saw Connor (Zilisch) yesterday, his lap, he about skimmed it through turn four. He made up time doing it, so it’s risk versus reward.
But you know, to me, it’s nice to at least have something there to show what the track limit is and not always kind of be — like last year, through turn six, you’re guessing whether it’s track limits or not. So yeah, I’m sure I’ll hate it if I hit it, but you know, I think that goes without saying.”
(No Mic…)
“I don’t know… that’s a good question. I don’t know what the best way to do it. You know, I didn’t mind the first year we came here and we had that yellow curbing there, and that was kind of the judge of it, of going inside that curb. But with anything, if you run it over or if you hit it, it’s going to do damage to the car. I guess, in a way, that’s our own fault. We’re the ones inside controlling it. So, I don’t know if it’s the best way. I didn’t mind that curb, but you know, at least there’s something.”
Is the narrative frustrating or more motivating when we come to road courses now and it’s — alright, well it’s SVG and Connor Zilisch, and everyone else is kind of just showing up to run behind them?
“I mean, the way we change that narrative is you go beat them, right? But for the most part, we didn’t do that at most of the road courses last year. It’s not frustrating to me. I think, for me, the most frustrating thing was just, in general, we didn’t run great at the road courses last year. You know, I put a lot of that on my shoulders. I think as Goodyear softens the tire, it gives the advantage to a guy like SVG that really knows how to save the tires. It’s something that, whether it was setup-based or my own doing, I struggled with it last year of trying to be good on long runs.
I don’t really put stock in how good SVG is, in that sense. Like for me, it would be different if I ran second every weekend to him on the road courses and you can’t beat him, then that kind of gets frustrating. But we weren’t even in that ballpark, so I think it’s more focusing on myself. You try to learn from them; study it, try to figure out what makes them so good and try to go out there and be better. That’s kind of what I focus on. The only thing I get frustrated with is myself.”
With the reduced help this year, how does that affect you at road courses?
“Well, I mean, I think over these next five, six or seven weeks, we’ll kind of really see where we are. Of course, it’s a limitation and it’s a different challenge for us. I think there’s benefits inside the shop of the people that we’ve added and some of the stuff that we’re doing. But there’s also a negative to it, especially if we show up on a weekend and we’re off and you have nothing to kind of fall back on. That’s part of it. That’s part of where we’re at on the Cup side of it with our organization.
You know, at the end of the day, it’s still figuring out where your weaknesses are and trying to strengthen them. I think I’ll probably have a better answer for you on that in the next five, six or seven weeks. These first two weeks, we kind of know that it doesn’t really show anything of what you are or aren’t as a race team. But yeah, it’s a new challenge and we just try to make the best of it.”
With you guys having a familiar tire this year but increased horsepower, how does that I affect the balance of the tire saving as the run goes on?
“It probably gives SVG more of an advantage, honestly (laughs). I mean, it’s a decent size gap of horsepower from then to what we have now, but it’s not massive. I definitely think if you’re burning the rear tires off, it’s going to make it worse or you’re just going to have to really be gentle with the throttle. I don’t think it changes it a big difference, but it definitely is going to be more keen on trying to save tires, and if you abuse them, it’s going to be more extreme.”
Take me through that last lap the 2022… what do you remember from that battle with Ross Chastain and Alex Bowman.
“I don’t have any recollection of it. It’s out of my memory.”
You’ve seen a lot of kids come and go. What can you say about Connor Zilisch? Have you been just aware of what he’s achieving under the Red Bull banner?
“I mean, I think it’s very rare. There’s a lot of great race car drivers. I think word ‘phenom’ kind of gets used too much sometimes,. but it definitely should be used on him. You know, what his career goes to, we’ll all see in live time and if he completely lives up to the hype. But to start with, he is and probably exceeding it.
You saw even yesterday, I mean he’s super quick. I think there’ll be mistakes made. Even like last year, you watch the Xfinity race – I think he made mistakes, but was still fast enough to make up for it.
The biggest thing is that he gets in everything and he’s fast. It’d be different if he got just in a Cup car and he was fast, but he gets in an IMSA car, he got in that GTP, and he was fast. When he was karting, to do it on the world stage and go beat some of the best, that’s hard to do. Karting in Europe, for people that don’t know what it is, it’s a different level than what karting in North America is. It is a completely different level. It’s a profession over there. He was able to go over there and compete, win and do things that a lot of Americans couldn’t. So yeah, I mean we’re going to see what he lives up to. But from what he’s shown so far, it’s going to be pretty special.”
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