{"id":99052,"date":"2025-07-28T09:52:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T09:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/99052\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T09:52:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T09:52:12","slug":"how-nascar-driver-aj-allmendinger-sees-daytonas-coke-zero-sugar-400-with-playoffs-looming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/99052\/","title":{"rendered":"How NASCAR driver AJ Allmendinger sees Daytona’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 with playoffs looming"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAYTONA BEACH \u2014 You couldn\u2019t tell if AJ Allmendinger<\/a> was being serious or not.<\/p>\n

While taking groups of media members and raffle winners around the Daytona International Speedway<\/a> tri-oval before a fundraiser on July 23, the NASCAR Cup Series driver<\/a> hopped out of the Chevrolet Blazer pace car after each ride, greeted the next bunch and quipped as they climbed in with him.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m wearing that front left tire out! That\u2019s OK. I think it\u2019s got two more laps in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMan, we\u2019re heating those brakes up! We should be all right.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tires looked normal, even after a few rounds at 130 miles per hour. But the brake smell lingered on pit road.<\/p>\n

Later, Allmendinger broke out more (likely) sarcasm. He said his visit to Daytona a month before the Coke Zero Sugar 400<\/a> offered him an advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, just practicing running the top,\u201d Allmendinger said, holding back a smile. \u201cIt’s slick out there. The old Chevy Blazer, I might try to take the shock package off that thing because that was really smooth. Might take that over to my crew chief, Trent Owens, and see what we can learn from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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If there is an advantage to the few extra practice laps, Allmendinger will take it.<\/p>\n

\"NASCAR<\/p>\n

NASCAR driver AJ Allmendinger checks the tires on the Chevrolet Blazer pace car before the NASCAR Foundation’s Licence to Drive Track Laps fundraiser, Wednesday, July 23, 2025, at Daytona International Speedway.<\/p>\n

Daytona\u2019s August race returns to the final week of the regular season this year. Last summer, due to a two-week Olympic break, it filled the second-to-last slot on the calendar.<\/p>\n

Translation: The Coke Zero Sugar 400 is back to being the final chance for drivers to claim one of the 16 playoff spots<\/a>. Some will leave Daytona Beach happy. Many won\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s going to be some action,\u201d said Allmendinger, who is in the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet full-time this year. \u201cThis being the cutoff race, we’re all-take now. It’s not give-and-take. It’s going to be all-take from everybody. It’ll be a fun event.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Following the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Sunday, there have been 13 winners, locking each of them into the postseason with four races to go.<\/p>\n

Two of those four will occur at ovals (Iowa and Richmond). The others will take place at larger wild cards (road course<\/a> Watkins Glen and superspeedway Daytona).<\/p>\n

\"NASCAR<\/p>\n

NASCAR driver AJ Allmendinger prepares to drive around the track at Daytona International Speedway in support of the NASCAR Foundation’s Licence to Drive Track Laps event, Wednesday, July 23, 2025.<\/p>\n

Allmendinger sits 124 points below the cutline, four spots removed from the playoffs. As a road-course specialist, he views Watkins Glen as his best chance to score a postseason-clinching victory.<\/p>\n

But if it doesn\u2019t happen there, well, enter Daytona and all the chaos that comes with it. The Coke Zero Sugar 400 is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 23.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOf course, the goal is to make the playoffs,\u201d Allmendinger said, \u201cbut we’ve just got to keep getting better. We’ve had some really good runs. We’ve had some speed, I would say. At more than three quarters of the races, we’ve been pretty quick. We’ve just had some bad luck, and there are a lot of teams that can say that.\u201cBut just trying to keep getting better. If that gets us into the playoffs, great. If not, you finish the year strong and keep trying to build where our organization is at on the Cup side of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

No joking there.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: How NASCAR driver AJ Allmendinger sees Daytona race before playoffs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DAYTONA BEACH \u2014 You couldn\u2019t tell if AJ Allmendinger was being serious or not. While taking groups of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":99053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[64831,64832,40373,64830,1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-99052","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-allmendinger","9":"tag-chevrolet-blazer","10":"tag-daytona-beach","11":"tag-daytona-international-speedway","12":"tag-nascar","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114930250267058424","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}