The ‘Dinger’ seems to have lost his title. AJ Allmendinger was called the King of the Road Course for his unmatched prowess and winning streak on road courses. However, he hasn’t won a single race since the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity season, thus losing his crown. One good thing is that the crown has stayed within the Kaulig Racing team. And Kevin Harvick talked about this new king in a recent episode of his podcast. 

Shane van Gisbergen is the New King of the Road 

Allmendinger was known as a road-course ace. All three of his Cup Series wins have come on road courses. Even in the Xfinity Series, he has dominated road courses, clinching 11 of his 17 victories on these tracks that throw right turns into the mix. 

Allmendinger finished the 2023 year with one win at the Charlotte Roval. By finishing 21st in points, he failed to make it to the playoffs. In the current season, he is yet to secure a win. On the other hand, his teammate Shane van Gisbergen has secured 3 wins, all on road courses. Sounds a little too familiar, Doesn’t it? Gisbergen’s rise in the Xfinity series could be the reason for AJ’s downfall.

Gisbergen’s dominance started with the Portland raceway, taking on JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier, securing his first Xfinity win. The Kiwi driver got his second back to back win at Sonoma. He continued his dominating performance as he won in Chicago. Post the win, talks of him being the best road course driver began.

Harvick picked the same topic in his podcast, ‘Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour’, where he talked about how Allmendiger’s performance on the road courses in the 2024 season, “The other thing that’s interesting is to me the SVG situation as to what that has done to AJ Allmendiger. We don’t talk about AJ being the guy to beat. He hasn’t qualified well on really any of the road courses.”

Other than the contested title, AJ’s performance in the 2024 Xfinity series has been better than good, compared to his last. He is ranked 6th, with 3 top five finishes and 9 top 10 finishes and is a top contender for the playoffs. Whereas his teammate is currently placed at the 13 position in points. 

NASCAR racers have chosen their king

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SVG’s success on the road courses has his colleagues speak of him in high regards. The recent Chicago race, where Gisbergen took the checkered flag, left Kyle Larson and Ty Gibbs pretty impressed. NASCAR Cup series leader said he had a blast racing him. “Obviously, I wanted to win today, but I wanted to learn more than anything. The first opportunity I got, I wanted to get racing because I just didn’t know if you’d ever have another opportunity to race with him.” Larson told NASCAR after the race. Larson also added that SVG was better than him and was playing with him during the race.

Gibbs, who took the second place in the race, also commended the #97’s prowess, “He’s (Shane van Gisbergen) very fast and deserves a lot of credit,”. SVG’s praise doesn’t stop with these two. Former NASCAR driver, Landon Cassill took to X to applaud SVG’s skills and tactics. In the post he wrote, “However, I believe we’re watching a driver win who has been trained to tactically set up each pass not by just bludgeoning his opponents out of the way but by using actual race-craft and strategy. It’s beautiful.” 

Dale Earnhardt Jr, in his recent podcast episode, mentioned Landon’s tweet and in a way echoed what it said. Also in the podcast was NASCAR spotter TJ Majors who cheered SVG’s skills to catch cars on the track, he said ”He is incredible under braking, every time he starts to brake the back of the car starts to step out and he catches it. He is on the edge because I think he does that deal with both feet and he’s incredible at it.”

SVG is definitely the talk of the town as the most dominant player on road courses. However, his game on ovals is not something to be cheered, as was seen in the recent Pocono race. If he improves that, the #97 driver will be in contention for the best overall driver in NASCAR Xfinity.