AJ Allmendinger clarifies profanity-filled ECR outburst after heartbreaking Kansas setback

AJ Allmendinger explained his meltdown and criticism towards ECR after his #16 Chevy retired from the race following a blown engine. He explained that his frustration was in the heat of the moment, and he has a "deep passion" for ECR.

His race at the Kansas Speedway came to an early end after his engine blew up as he was finishing the sixth lap of the opening stage. Running in 29th place since the start of the race, his car was seen blowing up smoke out of turn four on the track, and subsequently, he ranted out at ECR, Kaulig's engine provider.

"Hey [ECR Engines], you guys [expletive] suck," Allmendinger said (via MotorsportsWire.

However, Allmendinger recently explained that he is dedicated to the organization and made his statement out of frustration. Speaking on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, he also mentioned that, having worked with ECR for the past decade, there have been barely engine issues.

"I've worked with ECR for over 10 years. And it's just rare that we've had a couple of engine issues on the cup side of it and then on, you know, with the 16th group on the Xfinity side of it. I think that's kind of where all the frustration kind of boiled over was the fact that I have a deep passion for this organization," AJ Allmendinger said.

Kaulig Racing is one of the three full-time teams in the 2025 Cup Series that runs ECR-powered cars. Richard Childress Racing and Trackhouse Racing also operate on the same power unit, and the non-chartered Beard Motorsports.

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AJ Allmendinger reveals ECR's hard work behind the scenes working on the engine issue

AJ Allmendinger added that the ECR organization is currently working on a fix for the engine issue. He also mentioned via SiriusXM Radio that he has confidence in its work.

"So we've had great talks and there are everybody's working. They're butts off to fix the issue. So I got full confidence in it. But yeah, definitely all that frustration kind of ended in the way it did."

At the same time, however, Allmendinger finds it puzzling that he had never faced major issues with the ECR engines in the previous years prior to this.

"The strange thing for me is like all the years that I've worked with ECR, like we've never really had a lot of engine issues. So it's not like this is the problem that exists for a long time. So it's just, we're all working together and we'll fix it. It's just been a couple of tough weeks and it hurt us in points and things like that. But you can't go back and fix it. So we just go try to make it better."

AJ Allmendinger ran Kaulig's Xfinity division in the 2024 season before rejoining the Cup Series field full-time. He drove consistently in the second tier, but his performance hasn't been the same in the Cup Series so far this season. He did manage to pull in a couple of top 10 finishes, however, it was mostly alternated with subpar performances.