A Lot Has Changed in the 10 Years Since AJ Allmendinger's Last Pole

A lot has changed in the sport of NASCAR and the world since AJ Allmendinger last collected a pole position in NASCAR Cup Series competition. The driver of the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet threw down an excellent lap in Friday afternoon's qualifying session for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

And incredibly, the 15.117-second (126.930 mph) laptime was enough to hold on, and Allmendinger snagged the pole by just 0.003 seconds over Ryan Blaney, the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion and current Playoff contender.

Starting Lineup: Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol

Allmendinger, who missed the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff field and ranks 21st in the championship standings heading into this race admitted he wasn't quite sure how he was able to squeeze enough speed out of his race car to get the pole.

"I don't know, I closed my eyes for both [laps], so I'm not really sure," Allmendinger said in a post-qualifying interview on TruTV. "Man, this Grizzly Nicotine Pouches Chevrolet in practice was pretty good, and this place is so tough to qualify, but the first lap she stuck and I looked at the dash and thought 'okay, that's a pretty good lap, so I'm going to try for more on the second'."

The 43-year-old racer has his eye on the prize, which is a gladiator sword, which is given to race winners at Bristol Motor Speedway, the track known as 'The Last Great Colosseum', but he can't help but be chipper about scoring a pole at a track as steeped in NASCAR history as the 0.533-mile short track.

"I know it's just qualifying, we got 500 laps around this place, but to get a pole at Bristol, that's pretty awesome," Allmendinger smiled.

How Different Were Things When Allmendinger Last Won a Pole?

So, exactly how different was the world back when Allmendinger, then a 33-year-old driver, scored his last NASCAR Cup Series pole position, which he accomplished at Watkins Glen International in 2015?

Within the sport of NASCAR, quite a bit has changed.

Stage Racing wasn't a thing the last time Allmendinger was fastest in a NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session. The system, which is a major component of NASCAR's Playoff format in 2025, which awards championship points to the top-10 finishers at set points in the race and Playoff Points to the Stage Winners, didn't become a thing until the 2017 season.

At that time, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, and Martin Truex Jr. had yet to become NASCAR Cup Series champions. Busch would claim his first of two championships at the end of the 2015 season, a year in which he missed several races earlier in the year due to a broken leg and ankle suffered in the season-opening NASCAR Xfinity Series (then NASCAR Nationwide Series) event.

The three drivers have now combined to win six championships, and Truex retired at the conclusion of the 2024 season.

Kyle Larson, who was in the midst of his second full-time NASCAR Cup Series campaign at that time, had yet to record his first career victory in NASCAR's premier series. Larson, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion, now has 32 NASCAR Cup Series race wins.

Connor Zilisch, who has taken the NASCAR Xfinity Series by storm this season by racking up nine wins in his Rookie of the Year campaign, was just nine years old when Allmendinger claimed that pole at Watkins Glen, the track where Zilisch took his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series win a year ago.

Zooming outside of the NASCAR bubble, Barack Obama was on the back half of his second and final four-year Presidential Term. Since Allmendinger's last pole, we've had three Presidential election cycles.

Donald Trump took over as the United States of America's 45th President in 2017, while Joe Biden became the 46th President in 2021, and Trump reassumed office as the 47th President in 2025, becoming the second President to ever be reelected after failing to win reelection following their first term. Trump joined Grover Cleveland.

In 2015, there had never been a public company that had been valued at $1 trillion. Apple became the first company worth $1 trillion as it crossed the threshold in 2018.

Gas prices were sitting at a National average of $2.62/gallon, while a gallon of milk could have been had for $3.39, and a carton of eggs was roughly $2.97, per MacroTrends.net.

In United States Pop Culture, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation was the No. 1 movie in United States movie theatres, and the song "Cheerleader" by Omi was atop the Billboard Hot 100 song chart.

Zooming out past the United States, Prince Harry had yet to marry Meghan Markle. The Royal Wedding, which was an event that captivated a large portion of the globe, took place in May 2018.

Brexit, where the United Kingdom officially withdrew from the European Union, took place on January 31, 2020.

Can Allmendinger Parlay Pole-Winning Run to Race Win?

With the pole, Allmendinger will start Saturday night's Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway with the best track position imaginable. Is there a chance he can surprise the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff drivers and claim his first NASCAR Cup Series race win since 2023?

It's possible, but it would take Allmendinger doing something he's never done in the NASCAR Cup Series before: winning on an oval.

Allmendinger, who started his career in the open-wheel ranks, has recorded NASCAR Cup Series wins at Watkins Glen International (2014), the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course (2021), and the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL (2023).

In 26 previous starts at Bristol Motor Speedway, Allmendinger has just three top-10 finishes, and he's never finished better than seventh. However, all three of those top-10 runs at Bristol have come in his last 10 starts at the track.

Allmendinger could make a surprising pick for the win on Saturday night.