CONCORD, N.C. – 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series regular-season champion Justin Allgaier will return to drive the No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet for JR Motorsports, he announced Thursday afternoon at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway.
Allgaier, a Playoff contender is enjoying his eighth full-season of competition and has won a series-high five races and posted 15 top-five and 21 top-10 finishes in 27 races entering Saturday afternoon’s Drive for the Cure 200 at Charlotte’s new ROVAL.
“It’s been an interesting silly season for sure, but for us, I’m extremely happy with where I’m at,” Allgaier said. “… From my standpoint, I’ve got a great team behind me right now and the folks at BRANDT have obviously supported me for a number of years now and where we’re at for them, whether it’s with me or not, I think JR Motorsports is a great fit for them as well.”
While he’s satisfied in the Xfinity Series for now, the 32-year-old said he hopes to one day return to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, where he drove for the now-defunct HScott Motorsports from 2014-2015.
In 76 Cup starts overall, he earned a career-best eighth place finish at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway after starting 15th in 2015.
“Don’t get me wrong – I still want redemption on the Cup side, I still want to go drive Cup again in some point in my career, I still think that I have the ability to go do it,” he added. “But, it’s going to have to be the perfect scenario.”
Since joining JR Motorsports in 2016, Allgaier has won seven of his 10 Xfinity Series victories with the Mooresville, N.C.-based team. Overall in 267 starts since 2008, the Riverton, Ill.-native has also earned 67 top-five and 149 top-10s.
With his most recent victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earlier this month, Allgaier’s No. 7 team led by crew chief Jason Burdett is the leading candidate to win the Xfinity Series championship – if they make it to the Championship 4 round at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway in November.
Allgaier is a previous champion in the ARCA Racing Series winning the title over former Cup racer Scott Speed and current Roush Fenway Racing driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in 2008.
Speed and Stenhouse were engaged in an on-track brawl and were eliminated from competition in the season-finale at Toledo Speedway, opening the door for Allgaier to slide in and steel the title by winning the race at Toledo Speedway.
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