LAS VEGAS—Justin Allgaier has been in the Xfinity Series Championship 4 picture in all but two years since NASCAR introduced the elimination format for that tour in 2016.
However, the No. 7 JR Motorsports driver’s path to surviving the Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway and transferring to the Round of 8 last Saturday was precarious, to say the least.
With his 15th stage win of the season and an assist from his teammate Brandon Jones in the closing laps, Allgaier rallied to a seventh-place result to vault back to the top of the NXS standings for the Round of 8.
“Last Monday, before Charlotte, there wasn’t even a clear path to get either one of the two JR Motorsport cars into the Round of 8,” Allgaier said. “But to have Charlotte go the way that it did—to get two in, to have three total and to reset as the point leader—it’s like a dream. I’m ready to wake up and that not be the case.”
Sammy Smith was the first driver to advance from the JRM stable with his win at Talladega Superspeedway. Sam Mayer pulled off the comeback victory at the Roval to move on.
But the last six races have not been kind to Allgaier. He crashed at Atlanta Motor Speedway and again at Bristol Motor Speedway before soldiering on to a 30th-place result at the latter track. Once the Round of 12 kicked off at Kansas Speedway, Allgaier crashed again. A 25th-place result at Talladega dropped Allgaier to ninth among the 12 postseason candidates.
“It’s been a rough stretch of six-to-eight weeks before Charlotte,” Allgaier said. “Not that Charlotte was great, but Charlotte was a great example of execution. We got to where we needed to get to, we got to the end of the race and did what we needed to do points-wise.
“Jim (Pohlman, crew chief) told me, ‘Just sit where you’re at. Don’t try and race anybody. Don’t wreck. Don’t make mistakes.’ I think that’s a great spot to be in cause I’m looking ahead of me and I’m calculating the points in my head and I’m like any of the four guys that are behind us right now can go and win the race and it doesn’t affect us. We can make it to the next round.
“It really was a relief—a stressful handful of weeks.”
At 34, and in his 19th season in NASCAR racing, Allgaier has learned to manage the stress that accompanies the job whether racing a truck, a Cup car or in the Xfinity Series, where he has spent the last nine seasons with JRM. Since taking over the No. 7 ride in 2016, Allgaier has advanced to the Round of 8 every year. In 2023, he finished second in the standings following a four-win season.
In his second year under the direction of Pohlman, Allgaier hopes to finish one spot better.
“Dale Jr., sat in the media center at Bristol and said he thought this was our best opportunity ever,” said Allgaier, who in turn joked that his co-owner jinxed them. “Bristol was bad, but it has been brutal. To come to Vegas with the year that we’ve had and all the DNFs that we have and to still be the points leader, to have 15 stage wins, it’s pretty wild, right?
“When I look at the year as a whole, I’m like, ‘How did we not win 10 races?’ My team deserves that with as fast as the race cars they bring to the race track every week. Going back to the mistakes that I’ve made, I’m like, ‘Holy cow, we’ve given away some points this year.’ But we have new life now.
“If we were to come out of this season with the championship, that would be amazing but this year has proven that you can want it, you can work harder but if it’s not God’s plan, it ain’t going to happen. Sometimes you just have to accept that.”
Allgaier welcomes the fresh start of a new round and a traditional intermediate track such as Vegas, where he finished 10th in March—his 17th top 10 in 20 starts at the 1.5-mile track. He believes the prior adversity just makes the No. 7 team stronger.
“Jim talked about pressure making diamonds,” Allgaier said. “He said he was honored to be in this position because pressure is a privilege.
“I think you learn more about yourself and your team when you go through those moments than you do when everything is going your way. Those last six weeks has done that for us.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
