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Audio By Carbonatix
Veteran NASCAR driver AJ Allmendinger was having an impressive return to the Cup Series after spending the 2024 season in the Xfinity Series with team Kaulig Racing. But in recent weeks, Allmendinger’s season has come unglued after a crash at Texas Motor Speedway and a blown engine this past weekend in Kansas.
The latter of which sent Allmendinger, who is well known for his short temper, into an absolutely insane crash out over his team radio. The 43-year-old dropped countless F bombs while trash-talking engine provider Earnhardt Childress Racing.
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“Hey ECR, you guys f—-ing suck!” Allmendinger yelled.
His crew chief then asked if he lost the engine, to which Allmendinger sarcastically replied, “Yeah, shockingly.”
But that’s when things got even more ugly. Allmendinger didn’t key up his radio again while pulling into the garage. But he could be heard yelling “F—!” at least five separate times while his car rolled to a stop.
His frustration is understandable. Prior to the crash at Texas, Allmendinger was in the top 16 in the NASCAR Cup Series points and a genuine playoff contender. But back-to-back DNFs leave him in 25th and likely staring down a situation where he needs to win to qualify for the playoffs.
To his credit, Allmendinger is not the first person to criticize engine provider. The Trackhouse Racing team also purchases engines from ECR. Last week, Trackhouse drivers Daniel Suarez and Ross Chastain both not-so-subtly hinted at a lack of power and reliability.
“We’ve been struggling on Saturdays to find the speed that some of the other teams have been able to find.” Suarez said. “And on Sunday, we are able to get better because we maximize things in our car, strategy, things like that. You know, last week in Texas, a third of the field wrecked. So it’s tricky. Like, yes, we finished in the top 10, but really how good were we? Ross finished second. I think he did an amazing job on every single restart in the last five of them that we had. But we still need speed.”
Suarez showed a good bit more couth than Allmendinger. But he more or less made the same statement. And it may be time for ECR charmain and CEO Richard Childress to have a good, long look in the mirror.