No pressure for AJ Allmendinger facing must-win NASCAR playoff odds

While most of the playoff drama has centered around Chase Elliott and the must-win odds he faces over the next two races at Watkins Glen and Daytona, it’s a familiar story for AJ Allmendinger in his full-time return to the NASCAR Cup Series.

In a previous era of the sport, there were just two road courses on the schedule. Winning at Sonoma or Watkins Glen were perceived as the only chances Allmendinger had to win his way into the Round of 16.

In fact, Allmendinger stepped away from the sport for a year because that sort of dynamic just left him kind of burned out, until Kaulig Racing enticed him to return to racing – first part-time in the Xfinity series, then full-time in Xfinity and now full-time in Cup.

A full-time return to Cup also sees him in a familiar position of being just outside of the playoff cutoff and needing to win one of the final two road courses races or on the superspeedway to end the season.

Is there pressure?

“No, why is there pressure,” Allmendinger said during a Saturday afternoon media scrum at Watkins Glen. “We try to win every weekend. If that happens, we make the playoffs, and if not …

Allmendinger paused for a second to gather his thoughts.

“I think you guys probably stress a lot more about it than we do at Kaulig Racing,” Allmendinger said. “We know the ultimate goal is to win a race and make the playoffs, but this is a building program that we’re trying to make faster.

“Of course, if you don’t show up with some (kind) pressure on yourself, then you shouldn’t be here but the quote unquote pressure to try to win to get into the playoffs, I don’t feel it.”

Allmendinger finished second in this race last year, just missing out on overtaking Kyle Larson, but it’s a completely different dynamic at The Glen this time around with a lower downforce rules package and the pressure, to whatever degree it exists, to make the playoffs as a full-time driver.

“The aero package is different and that’s probably, on the whole, we’ve been more off on the lower downforce,” Allmendinger said. “When you do that, the better teams have an advantage, because the more downforce you get, there’s less of it to make, but we used some of our notes from last year and we’ll see if it unloads the same.”

There is also no pressure from a job security standpoint as Allmendinger says he’ll be with the same team in some way or form, be it Cup, Xfinity, full-time or part-time.

“My plans aren’t unknown,” Allmendinger said. “I’ll be in a Kaulig firesuit no matter what next year. My only pressure is trying to figure out how to take care of a baby whenever he shows up.”

Allmendinger’s wife, Tara, is due any day now with their first child.  

Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on .