A.J. Almendinger and his No. 16 Celsius Chevrolet Camaro for Kaulig Racing have qualified for the Championship at Phoenix Raceway in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, but the hard work this season is just beginning for the veteran driver. Almendinger sat down with Newsweek for an exclusive interview before this weekend’s National Debt Relief 250 at Martinsville Speedway.
Do you drink Celsius on race day?
A.J. Almendinger: Yeah, there’s always a mix of trying to hydrate and just prepping for the race, but it’s definitely something that throughout the weekend that I need constantly. Good thing is Celsius does a great job of keeping us highly supplied with it, so I walked out of the holler and grabbed one and walked back in. But yeah, it’s essential for me during the race weekend.
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You have the championship round in Phoenix clinched already. What’s your mindset going into tomorrow’s race at Martinsville?
A.J. Almendinger: Yeah, I mean I think for me at least, I always do this because I love to challenge myself more than anything of competing, going out there and being at my best for the race team. So the pressure isn’t there with trying to make the final four and thankfully because I’ve been in this situation at Martinville, it’s probably one of the most stressful racetracks to have to do that at. So that has definitely taken the pressure off of it, but I still have the pressure on my shoulders for myself when it comes to going out there and try to win the race and be at the best for the race team. So to me what I focus on is there’s still a trophy to win, especially here at Martinsville. The grandfather clock is highly iconic and would be one of those trophies I would love to have always dreamed of having.
So definitely competing for that. And I think Homestead last week we went in there, we had a really fast race car we ran up front. Hopefully we can do that at Martinsville because you still want to continue that momentum that we have from winning Vegas and being locked in the final four. I think our prep for Martinsville has been a little different. The race car is still prepped as close as it would be if this was a race of trying to make the final four. But when it comes to sim, things like that, we haven’t done much of it just because we’ve been focused on Phoenix. But yeah, it’s still the same mindset. I want to go win and if not winning, I want to finish as high as we can to keep the momentum rolling.
Are you still carrying momentum from Vegas?
A.J. Almendinger: Yeah, I really felt like at Homestead we allowed us to try a couple different things, but more than anything we didn’t have a great practice, but I thought the race was really good. We had a top three car. The finish of 10th doesn’t really show that because being locked in, we had an opportunity to do a different strategy and really try to steal the wind. So I was really excited leaving Homestead just because of the speed that we’ve had. And that’s something over the last four weeks we’ve really focused on. I mean we’ve really tried the second half of the year honestly, but the last four weeks we’ve shown that we’ve had a lot of speed. So I left Homestead feeling like we just had as much momentum as we did in Vegas.
You’ve had a lot of success at Martinsville, you’ve had top five, some top tens. Do you think you can come home with a grandfather clock this weekend?
I hope so. I do know that the drivers that aren’t locked in and this race has shown this over the last couple of years. I mean there’s a lot of desperation and aggression. So if it’s a late race caution, if you’re leading the race or up front there’s a chance you might get moved. And there’s also the mindset of you don’t really want to piss anybody off going into Phoenix and make any enemies.
So there’s a fine line that I feel, like as a driver, I have to be on because of course we want to win and if we have an opportunity to win, we’re going to do everything that we can to win the race. But you definitely don’t want to make those enemies and just make Phoenix tougher than it’s going to be already. So in the spring here we had a really good car and I felt like we had a chance to win. We got caught up on a restart wreck there. So I’ll know more after we go practice and qualify and kind of see what kind of speed we have. But the mindset is this is a racetrack that we’ve always been good at and then we can go win at.
How’s the team feeling going into qualifying in practice today?
A.J. Almendinger: Yeah, we feel fine. Practice and qualifying here is unique just because when the racetrack starts as we talk right now, trucks are on the racetrack, there’s no rubber on the racetrack. So I think this track changes a lot because depending on how the rubber gets laid down, it really changes the handling characteristics of the car. So between now as we talked and trucks being on the racetrack and then us practicing and qualifying and then cup tomorrow practicing qualifying before the race, this track will change a lot. But I think it’s just trying to get into a rhythm here. And ultimately we’d love to have a good qualifying session just because that sets the pit picks for Phoenix, which is a big deal. But we feel good with what we’re doing and hopefully, we unload here and we got good speed outright.
It’s kind of a funky time. We’re getting close to silly season, the season’s winding down. Right now, Stewart-Haas Racing is shutting down, 23XI is going through court… How do you feel about the current state of NASCAR right now?
A.J. Almendinger: Yeah, I mean I think there’s a lot of things happening right now in NASCAR. I’ll always say it’s sad to see an iconic team like Stewart-Haas Racing going away. It’s sad I think for the fans just as the race team in general, but it’s definitely sad for the people that work there. There are so many people that work there and you just hope that they’re able to find other spots and teams to go work on. So that’s a difficult side of it.
The lawsuit side of it, I honestly haven’t paid much attention to a lot of inner workings and details that I’m sure we don’t know about and things that are going to happen good or bad. Those are decisions that those organizations made, and it has nothing to do with us, myself driving for Kaulig Racing at all. So, I don’t really pay any attention to that.
What I’m focused on is really, it’s obviously the next two weeks here of trying to win a championship and then really the off season of trying to get our Cup program where it needs to be and hit the racetrack in Daytona in 2025 running. I feel like we showed a lot of pace like last week at Homestead, we ran in the top 10 all day. We passed a lot of cars. We show when we’re at our best we can go run with the top teams, but we got to do that more consistent and when it comes to people and just the things that we have to do in the off season to get where we need to be at least to start the season, that’s what we’re focused on.
So, I can tell you the competition side of it, which is what I focus on, which is at an all-time high when it comes to Xfinity and Cup. So, we got to be on our ‘A’ game and that’s what we’re focused on.
How are you feeling about possibly winning a championship?
A.J. Almendinger: Well, first and foremost, just to have the opportunity to go win a championship is a huge accomplishment. It’s an honor to be able to go race for a championship in NASCAR. I’ve been able to do it once before and Phoenix unfortunately is a racetrack for whatever reason. I’d love to tell you why I guess we’d fix it if we knew why as a racetrack we struggled at in the past. So we’ve won Vegas and to give us these three weeks to do everything we can to be ready is a huge thing for us. So that’s kind of what we’re focused on. I don’t really, I guess I don’t let myself think about the championship just because I know the challenge that it’s going to be to go whatever three teams we’re racing against just because I know what we’ve done in the past to Phoenix and we have to be way better than we’ve been.
So, I don’t let my mind kind of wander, but I’ll put it to you this way; to win a championship in the top echelon of motorsports, that’s what we all strive for. I mean this is what we push ourselves for every day. I mean it’s all the ups and downs that we go through and myself, especially my wife Tara, and my son Arrow, my family and friends, my race team, Matt (Kaulig) and Chris (Rice) especially, they see how much I care about it, how much work and frustration that when it’s not going well and what I put on my shoulders to not let everybody down. So, I think the emotions if it were to happen would just be something that I probably can’t even channel and put into work. It’d be just all over the board of happiness and relief and just unbelievable just kind of things that you dream of.
So, I hope I get to experience that. It would make me feel like it’s come full circle and as a culmination, especially going back to Cup of winning Xfinity Championship for Matt Kaulig and Chris Rice and all the men and women that are at a race team Celsius has been a part of this team for a long time and been a sponsor. Now over the last couple of years, we’ve done some really cool things of winning races together and getting to share all this. So to be able to put them in Victory Lane or in I guess Championship Lane with [Celsius] being on the car would be super special. But I don’t allow myself to go to that until it happens. So there’s a lot of work to be done and that’s what I’m focused on.
You’ve got two races left and then you’re going back up to the Cup series. How are you feeling about the jump up next year?
A.J. Almendinger: Yeah, yeah, I mean I really enjoy driving the Cup cars. You want to compete against the best every weekend and I think it’s a different mindset than what we do in Xfinity. The ultimate goal is always to win and if you show up now, having that as the ultimate goal, you probably shouldn’t show up.
But with that said, the Cup side of it is just really difficult. You’re racing against the best of the best teams, best drivers. Where we’re at right now, our cars are I think 29th and 33rd points. So that just shows the amount of work that we have to do to kind of get into that contending top 15, top 20 level. But you know what, if I didn’t feel like we could do it, I probably wouldn’t go to Cup. And I really do feel like we can.
So I think that’s the mindset is get our team where it’s kind of a consistent top 20 team. We know at places like the road courses and certain racetracks that we can go be at our best and run top five, maybe win the race and then focus on the weaknesses and just try to make them a little bit better than where they’re at right now. I think if we do that, we can go run in that top 20 and maybe have a chance to make the playoffs. So I think that’s what I really look forward to next year is that challenge and can’t wait to do it.
