AVONDALE, Ariz.—Justin Allgaier will have to wait another year to dust off a spot for his Xfinity Series Championship trophy.
For the fifth time in seven seasons, the affable racer has entered the season finale with high hopes only to leave the weekend empty handed.
Allgaier and his two JR Motorsports teammates—Noah Gragson and Josh Berry—all advanced to the final four. But 20-year-old Ty Gibbs ran a near-perfect race and out-dueled the Chevys as the sun set in the desert.
“First of all, hats off to everyone at JR Motorsports,” said Allgaier, who finished third. “To put three cars in the Championship 4, obviously that was a big deal. To come out of here though with not one of us being the champion is probably the most difficult part.”
Allgaier, 36, had a shot. He started 11th on Saturday and took the point in the pits after the second stage. He was leading the Xfinity Series Championship Race with 22 laps remaining but the No. 7 Brandt Chevy was too loose in the closing circuits.
“I thought our team did a great job all night,” Allgaier said. “Jason Burdett (crew chief) and the whole No. 7 team did a good job of trying to make adjustments to the car to get it to where we needed it to be. We had awesome pit stops there at the end. We just got a little too free when we needed to be tighter.
“When the sun was going down, we were just trying to tighten the car up. We just didn’t quite take a big enough swing at it.”
Allgaier has two wins and an average finish of 7.7 at Phoenix Raceway since joining JRM in 2016. Before the race went green, he warned the team the lights on the dash were flickering. Eventually, the only instrument functioning was the tach. By Lap 26, Allgaier moved up to third—where he finished at the end of Stage 1.
When the JRM Chevys pitted with the leaders, all three had issues on pit road. Allgaier lost four spots in the pits and restarted seventh on Lap 54. He gained two positions before the third caution on Lap 60 and by Lap 80, Allgaier moved to the inside of Gragson for second and remained there for the second stage.
Allgaier gained the lead in the pits, but Gibbs passed him a lap after the restart. Several wrecks slowed the action—including an eight-car melee in Turn 4 on Lap 102. Following a second multi-car accident three laps later, Allgaier and Gragson tag-teamed Gibbs, who was second after the Lap 117 restart. Gragson grabbed the lead, Allgaier followed and the battle continued for 20 circuits. On Lap 145, Allgaier slipped and hit the Turn 4 wall and dropped to third. When Gragson slid out of the groove two laps later, Allgaier pounced to the point on Lap 148.
A dogfight between Allgaier and Gibbs ensued. The No. 7 team’s spotter Eddie D’Hondt warned Allgaier not to allow Gibbs to reach the left rear of the car—but fighting off the No. 54 Toyota was futile. Allgaier was stronger on the restarts—and stayed in the fight through two late-race cautions until Lap 180 when Gibbs passed him one final time. Gragson followed on the next circuit.
“I drove it for all I had,” Allgaier said. “The track obviously changed a lot; the lines changed a lot. But I’m just proud of everybody at JR Motorsports. Obviously, we wanted to get the win for the No. 7 team, but we just wanted to get one of us as the champion. We’ll go back on Monday. There are going to be a lot of heads down low, but I can promise you that by the time we get back to Daytona in February, we’re going to be in great shape and go make another run at it next year.”
Allgaier won three races in 2022 and finished third in the standings. Still, after five different attempts at winning the Xfinity Series title, each loss becomes a little bit harder to accept.
“Tonight was a difficult one, but like Noah said, Ty had the best car,” Allgaier said. “They executed all night. They made good adjustments. They beat us on pit road. They did all the right things. I was pretty disappointed we got the lead there, and there was some things I would do over if we got it back. We made good adjustments on our car, we just—at the end there we just—as the sun went down, we just got a little too free.
“I ran into the fence three or four times. Not sure that the motor isn’t blowing up. I mean, we were puffing out; I could see it, I could smell it. I’m pretty sure I broke some parts going across the apron a couple times. Wasn’t the ideal race for us, for sure, but we led a bunch of laps.
“I think probably the hardest part for me, and I just told Dale this on pit road, the fact that none of us from JR Motorsports went to Victory Lane. I look at every man and woman that works at our shop, and the passion for our team is so incredible in all four of our teams, the late model shop, Wyatt’s go-kart and micro stuff. It runs deep all the way through. I wanted it for everybody that works there.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer
