Each week, The Athletic asks the same 12 questions to a different race car driver. Up next: A.J. Allmendinger, the veteran NASCAR Cup Series driver for Kaulig Racing. This interview has been edited for clarity and length, but the full version is available on the 12 Questions Podcast.
1. What was one of the first autographs you got as a kid, and what do you remember about that moment?
Harry Gant. Sonoma. My favorite car, my favorite color growing up was green — still is — and I just loved the Skoal Bandit car. I think my parents still have the picture of me standing behind the Harry Gant car, holding up the one finger.
Side note: I saw Harry last week, and he looks exactly the same. From the time he was racing until now, he still looks exactly the same. So whatever anti-aging cream he’s using, I’m gonna need to get on that.
2. What is the most miserable you’ve ever been inside of a race car?
One year in the Rolex 24, I got one of those 3 or 4 a.m. stints. I got in the car, the caution came out as soon as I got in and then we had a fog delay — but we had to keep running under yellow for like two hours.
That was just misery because I was tired, there was no adrenaline flowing, and my whole stint was two hours under yellow. It got to the point where I kind of rested my head up against the side and woke up way down on the apron, down the back straightaway. So I had fallen asleep for probably 15 seconds.
I just remember thinking how miserable that was, because there was nothing you could do. I got to the point where I was asking (team owner Michael) Shank, “Can I pit?” and he’s like, “No, bud, we just gotta ride it out.” And the worst part was when the fog lifted, I’d run out of time, so they pitted me and got me out of the car.
3. Outside of racing, what is your most recent memory of something you got way too competitive about?
Golf. Every time I play. But really, just with myself. I always joke with my buddies that I’d rather lose shooting 76 and them shoot 75 than me shoot 85 and they shoot 86 and I beat them.
Why do you do that to yourself?
I think it’s just a carryover from racing — you love it even though it drives you insane and gives you lots of misery at times. My wife always says, “Why don’t you pick up a hobby that’s not competitive?” I say, “No, I just want to be better at the hobbies that I’ve got.” I love it and hate it all at the same time, just like racing.
4. What do people get wrong about you?
To a certain degree, people think I’m outgoing all the time. I would say I’m pretty reserved or shy in general, except around my friends and when I’m in a place I’m comfortable.
You get me in the right situation, and obviously I’m outgoing and have fun with it, but otherwise, I’m more to myself except when I’m with my buddies.
Now in his fifth season with Kaulig Racing, A.J. Allmendinger has been racing at least part-time in the Cup Series every year since 2007. (Jonathan Bachman / Getty Images)
5. What kind of Uber passenger are you, and how much do you care about your Uber rating?
Don’t care about my Uber rating. And I’m pretty quiet as a passenger. I know they’re just trying to get me where I’m going. We’ve got a lot of other things to worry about in life than being pissed off at an Uber driver.
6. I’m asking each person a hot-topic-type question. Your son Aero just turned 2 years old. Your upbringing helped shape you a lot — your mom was a nurse, your dad was a carpet layer, they mortgaged the house three times to help your career. You’ve said you didn’t come from privilege, you had to grind for everything and that shaped who you are. But your son is going to grow up in a much different financial situation than you did. How do you take the values important to your core and instill them into him?
My parents always said to me they’d do everything they could for me as long as I kept showing that I wanted to do it. It was always a family thing; I’m named after A.J. Foyt, so my dad obviously truly loved (racing). My mom loved it too, but she was the quieter person about it.
To me, it’s about embracing the challenge. Whatever he wants to do, go out there and work your butt off for it. I’ll never force him to race cars or play golf. But whatever he chooses, put everything you have into it. If you’re not going to, then there’s no point in even doing it.
Part of me still doing this now is trying to make sure we never have to worry about mortgaging things. But I just want him, whatever he goes after, to go 100 percent. If you don’t, then there’s no point even trying.
7. This is my 16th year of doing these 12 Questions interviews, so I’m going back to one from the first time we did this. In 2011, I asked you who was the most underrated driver in NASCAR, and you said David Reutimann. When you look around the garage now, who isn’t getting the credit or attention they should?
Christopher Bell. I know he wins a lot and he’s on a great team, but to me, he doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. He gets everything out of it. He’s been in the Championship 4 the last couple of years and doesn’t really do it with any controversy around him.
So even though he wins a lot, it’s probably Christopher Bell. He’s super good.
8. Other than one of your teammates, name a driver you’d be one of the first people to congratulate them in victory lane if they won a race.
For sure, it’s Justin Haley. I love the dude, and I think he’s super good. We were two laps down, but that last lap at Daytona (in August), I was his biggest fan watching him go for the win (Haley finished third). So definitely him.
9. How much do you use AI technology, whether for your job or daily life? Are you into ChatGPT or anything like that?
No. I actually don’t use AI hardly at all. My wife uses it a lot — I do not. I just stay in my lane. Makes it easy.
10. What is a time in your life that felt really challenging, but you’re proud of how you responded to it?
Just trying to come back and fight through it and still be here — from ’07 to now — is pretty amazing. I would have never thought that was going to happen.
After being suspended (for taking Adderall in 2012, which cost him his ride at Team Penske) and just coming back, having to go through the pain of it and fighting my way back in and still being here … I wish it never happened, but those are things you learn from and get better.
It’s pretty wild though that all those times you felt you were year-to-year, you’re still here and racing full-time Cup in 2025.
Part of me — sometimes it’s good mentally, sometimes it’s very bad mentally — but I still live like that now. I’m always out there trying to run a lap or run a race just to prove it to myself: “Hey, you still belong here.”
It’s the reason I say I have the best life in the world, but I’m probably miserable every day because it’s not good enough. I just want to continually prove to myself that I belong here.
But that’s how you drive yourself.
That’s how I’m still here. It’s not the most mentally healthy way of living, I can promise you that. There are a lot of dark moments. But it’s the way I push myself.
11. What needs to happen in NASCAR to take the sport to the next level of popularity?
We could talk about making the racing better and all that, but more than anything, you’ve got to get the popular drivers more mainstream. Whether that’s NASCAR pushing it more, or the drivers themselves — whether that’s their personality and they don’t want to be in the (spotlight) — but the most popular guys have to be mainstream.
Back in the day, Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon were mainstream. Even if you weren’t a race fan, you knew who they were. That’s what we’ve got to get back to.
12. Each week, I ask a driver to give me a question for the next person. The last one was Jesse Love, and he asked: For someone who’s had to jump around from team to team, series to series and even sport to sport, has there ever been a point in your career where you had to redefine what success means to you — or has it always been the same?
You redefine it every weekend. You show up to the race with the ultimate goal to win, but in our sport, you’re never guaranteed that. I used to love talking to Brad Daugherty when I drove for him, and I said, “You know, Brad, in every other sport you’re probably going to win a game. In the NFL, two teams went 0-16, but they still won the next year. In the NBA, the worst record ever is like 9-73 — they still walked off the court nine times feeling good about themselves.”
There’s no guarantee you’re ever going to walk into the hauler knowing you’re a winner. So you’ve got to redefine what success is each week. If you go out there as a team and execute — if I’m perfect that day as a driver, the pit crew is perfect and we finish 12th? That’s probably a pretty good day, because we got everything out of it.
Every weekend, the ultimate goal is to win, but maybe it’s a track you’re not very good at or where the team struggles. If 15th is the goal that day and you finish 14th, you’ve won that day. That’s how I try to look at it, because this sport will bury you if the ultimate goal is to win, and if you don’t win, it’s just misery.
The next interview is with Dale Earnhardt Jr. Do you have a question I can ask him?
Why did he always flip me off when we were racing against each other?