2 weeks agoLas Vegas Motor Speedway has always been a relatively good race track for AJ Allmendinger, especially considering he isn't known for his oval racing, and the gamble paid off for fantasy managers that backed him this weekend, as the Kaulig Racing driver scored his first top-10 finish of the season on Sunday afternoon in the Pennzoil 400. In addition to crossing the finish line in eighth place at the conclusion, Allmendinger also ended up with a sixth-place result in the first stage. He now sits 23rd in the points standings after five races. Good news for Allmendinger fans: the Cup Series heads to Homestead-Miami Speedway next, where The Dinger has been strong at recently with finishes of eighth or better in each of the last three races there.
--Jordan McAbeeSource: Frontstretch
2 weeks agoAlthough he's more known for his road course prowess, don't overlook AJ Allmendinger in the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend. Allmendinger has a knack for pulling out respectable finishes in the desert, as he has posted a top-15 result in four of his 13 career starts at the track. Allmendinger last raced in the Cup Series here back in 2023 and walked away with 18th- and 21st-place results in the two races with Kaulig Racing. This weekend, the No. 16 Chevrolet was 17th-fastest in practice and ended up qualifying in 18th-place for Sunday's race. On DraftKings, Allmendinger is priced at $6,600, and that relatively high salary combined with AJ's high starting position should keep his ownership pretty low on this slate. With decent overall upside, Allmendinger could be a viable option for tournament builds in DFS on Sunday.
--Jordan McAbeeSource: Jayski
3 weeks agoIs AJ Allmendinger an option in DFS this weekend? The Kaulig Racing driver is pretty cheap on DraftKings ($6,100) for Sunday's Shriners Children's 500, but he qualified up in 16th for this weekend's race, so is he worth the risk? Allmendinger has had decent runs at Phoenix Raceway in the past, but has struggled at the track in the Next Gen era. In four races at Phoenix with this new car, Allmendinger has ended up 20th or worse three times, although he did walk away with a 12th-place finish in the fall 2022 race after starting 16th (the same spot he qualified this weekend). The No. 16 Chevrolet didn't pop out in practice as being very strong, but track position is pretty important with this Next Gen car, too. You probably shouldn't go super heavy on Allmendinger in DFS contests this weekend, but if you're max entering, you should probably have a low level of exposure in case he sneaks into the top 10.
--Jordan McAbeeSource: Driver Averages
4 weeks agoA.J. Allmendinger's first road=course race as a full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver since his win at the Charlotte Roval in 2023 was going quite swimmingly indeed as he started 12th and ran in the top 10 for the first 90 laps of the race, including leading two laps -- once on a pit-stop exchange on Lap 43 and once when he beat leader Kyle Busch to the start-finish line on a restart on Lap 54. But he plummeted through the field over the last five laps of the race due to what was believed to be a bad set of tires and ended up finishing 30th, which did not remotely reflect how well he had run in the race.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
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