Fantasy NASCAR Racing

for 15 top five, and a whopping 27 top ten results.  They came close to getting a win on several occasions, finishing second at Talladega, Pocono, Dover, Darlington, and Bristol.  Chastain moved to the Cup Series full time in 2021, and Jeb Burton was brought in to fill that season.  He and Schlicker teamed up to get a first win for both of them.  It came at Talladega, with threating weather in the area as the race wound down.  The Kaulig racers were known for working together to get themselves to the front, and staying there once up there.  Burton and passed several cars; and team mate AJ Allmendinger had clung to his back bumper; pushing him up through the pack.  They got to the front, and Burton passed Austin Cindric to take the lead.  Just then, there was a massive pile-up and before they could get the race restarted there was a down-pour and the race was called official, with Burton claiming the win.  Schlicker was paired with Allmendinger full time in the Xfinity Series in 2022.  Although only in his third full time season as a crew chief, Schlicker led Allmendinger to a good season.  The pair started out on fire, and never really slowed down.  They finished second as the season opened at Daytona, and at COTA was in victory lane for the first time in the year.  It was 13 races before Allmendinger had a worse finish than ninth.  At the road course at Portland, AJ won again; a track Allmendinger had won at in the Indy Car series.  They won again at Indy on the road course, and won the regular season championship.  When the Chase started, he finished fourth at Texas; but added a win at both Talladega and the Roval.  But he had back luck in the semi-final round, as AJ finished 22nd at Las Vegas.  The car was slow off the truck; and Schlicker was never able to wave his magic wand and make the car better.  Allmendinger finished two laps down, most because the race had only one yellow (except for the end of stages), and the crew never got a chance to get their hands on the car to work on it.  They bounced back and almost won at Homestead; which would have locked them into the finals; but they came home third.  Allmendinger was fast; finishing eighth in the first stage; and was second at the end of stage two.  But some type of mechanical gremlin saw the car cut out; sputter and almost come to a stop.  The yellow flew, and the crew was able to fix whatever the problem was and get him back out on the lead lap.  But he had lost all his track position, and with only 35 laps to go, it was too late for him to get back up front.  Thus, his chance for the championship was gone.  He finished fifth at the season ending race at Phoenix, and fifth in the points.  Allmendinger has been promoted back to full time in the Cup series for 2023, and Schlicker will work with Chandler Smith, who comes to drive for Kaulig racing, moving up from the Truck series.  Smith and Schlicker had a good season as Smith progressed up from the truck into the more competitive Xfinity series.  A respectable 12th place run as the season opened at Daytona, was followed by three consecutive top five finishes.  They won at Richmond and locked themselves into the Chase.  They ran well and easily advanced out of the Round of 12; but in the Round of 8 they had problems.  A fourth place run at Las Vegas was followed by a blown motor at Homestead which left them with a 34th place finish.  Going into Martinsville, they were in a must-win situation to make it to the championship race.  But a crash and 36th place finish saw them eliminated.  They ran well in Phoenix finishing eighth and ninth in the points.  The duo also made one Cup start.  It was the first for both.  It came at Talladega when Smith started 34th, but worked his way through the field and finished eleventh.  In 2024, AJ Allmendinger will move back to the Xfinity series full time, and Schlicker will be his crew chief.