Kaulig Racing announced Wednesday morning that AJ Allmendinger will drive the team’s No. 16 Chevrolet full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2023. Allmendinger has a multi-year agreement with Kaulig Racing, which he has driven for in both the Cup and Xfinity Series since 2019.
Allmendinger will move from the Xfinity Series back up to the Cup Series, where he will serve as the full-time teammate to Justin Haley. After racing in Cup part-time for Kaulig while also running full-time in the Xfinity Series, 2023 will mark Allmendinger’s first full-time Cup Series season since 2018.
After racing in Cup full-time for the better part of nearly a dozen years, Allmendinger retired from full-time racing at the end of 2018 after several down years. But he would be lured back into the driver’s seat by Kaulig, winning races in a part-time for the team in 2019 and 2020 that would ultimately lead to Allmendinger returning to full-time racing in 2021.
Allmendinger’s career resurgence has been nothing short of remarkable, as he has won 12 Xfinity races for Kaulig as well as the last two regular season championships in the series. He also earned Kaulig’s first-ever Cup Series win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in 2021, and he has followed that up with one top five and five top 10s in 13 Cup starts this season, including a best finish of second at Watkins Glen in August.
“When I first went to Kaulig Racing to compete part-time in 2019 and 2020, I remember how I felt on the weekends that I wasn’t racing and how much I missed it,” Allmendinger said in a team press release. “Competing full-time is a mentally tough battle at times. No matter how much work you put in as a driver, there’s a chance you will not achieve success. For a while, I think I lost that competitive drive to be the best. Kaulig Racing helped me find that again.
“I now feel more competitive than ever and believe there is more success to be earned as a team.”
After winning in a photo finish at Talladega, Allmendinger has advanced to the Round of 8 in the Xfinity Series playoffs, where he is looking to advance to the Championship 4 for the second year in a row. Allmendinger has four victories this season to go with 14 top fives, 25 top 10s, and the regular season championship.
As Allmendinger moves back up to the Cup Series, Kaulig Racing also announced that he will be replaced in the team’s No. 16 Xfinity Series car by Chandler Smith. Smith joins the team from Kyle Busch Motorsports, where he is currently competing for the championship in the Camping World Truck Series.
