Against All Odds: Allgaier Rallies For Xfinity Series Title

AVONDALE, Ariz. – The seventh time was finally the charm for Justin Allgaier’s NASCAR Xfinity Series championship dreams, but it took one of the most improbable comebacks in history to make those dreams a reality.

After a 36-hour stretch at Phoenix Raceway where Allgaier suffered a practice crash that relegated him to a backup car, had to start last in the 200-mile Xfinity Series championship race, raced through the field only to endure two penalties just past halfway, a perfectly-timed caution flag put the perennial title contender back into contention and ultimately allowed him to rise above all the adversity in his way.

Allgaier was running 16th after pit stops during the second stage break of the race, and was lined up behind Kaulig Racing’s Josh Williams when he dove to the apron a car length before the start-finish line, drawing a restart violation pass-through penalty from race control at lap 101.

Compounding matters even more, Allgaier was caught speeding on pit road when he served his restart penalty on lap 104, leading to a second pass through that left him 35th in the rundown and nearly two laps down with 90 laps left at the one-mile desert oval.

But with the steady voice of crew chief Jim Pohlman in his ear, Allgaier found the will to dig deep and stay in the fight, and that perseverance eventually paid off.

As he steadily picked off cars one at a time, Allgaier worked his way near the free pass position prior to the final round of green-flag pit stops beginning with 55 to go. Knowing he needed a small miracle to get his driver back in the hunt, Pohlman kept Allgaier on the racetrack to try and cycle back to the lead lap.

That miracle materialized on lap 155, when Anthony Alfredo pounded the turn-one wall after cutting a right front tire, bringing out the fifth yellow flag of the night with Allgaier running 12th and on the lead lap in a wild twist of fortune.

He came down pit road for his final full set of fresh Goodyear tires on lap 160 and restarted 12th with 38 to go, quickly surging to ninth and taking just 10 laps to get to sixth place and within reach of third-running Custer for a shot at the championship.

Over the next 20 laps, Allgaier chipped away his deficit, getting to fifth place and just eight tenths off Custer’s bumper. Then with seven laps left, Allgaier’s rookie teammate Connor Zilisch bumped Custer out of the way to take third, which allowed Allgaier to get underneath Custer and pass him for the title spot.

The drama wasn’t over, though, as Leland Honeyman’s spin with three to go sent the race into extra distance and meant that the Championship 4 would be shuffled one more time.

Austin Hill took two tires on the ensuing set of pit stops to come out as the leader of the race and the championship, but struggled to get up to speed on the first overtime restart as he defended against Custer. That let Allgaier shoot the middle, passing both Hill and Custer for the championship lead.

From there, despite a final caution for Parker Retzlaff’s crash in turn two that took things into double overtime, Allgaier never looked back on his title rivals again.

He survived contact with late leader Jesse Love on the final restart to take the top spot, then survived a last-corner scrap with Riley Herbst to finish second and secure a long-awaited championship crown.

It was a comeback story that even Hollywood couldn’t have scripted, given everything Allgaier had to fight through before being able to hoist the most meaningful trophy of his NASCAR career.

“Man, I counted myself out of this like 10 times. I don’t think I have a voice left because I was yelling so loudly on the cooldown lap,” said Allgaier after climbing from his No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro on the frontsretch. “I’ve been doing this a long time, and these people that are standing around me – there’s no words for what they mean to me and what this moment means to me.

“My wife [Ashley] and my kids [Harper and Willow], they have given up so much for me to come do this job and to pay it off like this … God is good, man,” he continued. “I said it all weekend, I don’t know what the plan is. I don’t know what that looks like. But He’s got a reason for everything, and tonight is truly proof of that.

“It’s mind-blowing, it really is.”

Allgaier’s title-winning comeback was arguably a microcosm of his entire season, from the March race at Phoenix where he was leading inside of five to go before crashing out from a cut tire, to his mid-season victories at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway and Michigan Int’l Speedway, to nearly being eliminated from the playoffs in the Round of 8 before a stellar race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway vaulted him into the Championship 4.

Brilliance on the final night of the season, the likes of which only a seasoned veteran could have put together, ensured that the year ended with the highest of highs instead of another crushing defeat.

“This team never gave up. Jim Pohlman, his leadership skills are second to none. He told me all weekend that we were going to have a chance,” Allgaier noted. “Man, we tried to give it away every which way we could, though. I wasn’t as fast as Xfinity internet, both on pit road and on the racetrack, as I needed to be … but we found a way. We found a way.

“I was ready to pull down pit road, to be honest with you, and just park the car in the pit stall and get out. If it could go wrong this weekend, it did go wrong, but the team never gave up even when I could hear the disappointment in their voices,” he continued. “Six times before me I’ve come in here and I’ve said we did a great job and we executed the night well, and we built a great race car, and yet I’ve walked out of here without the opportunity to bring a championship back to the men and women at JR Motorsports.

“Tonight was different. I was tired of saying, ‘I’m sorry’ to everyone, and we did something about it.”

One of the other key moments in Allgaier’s race came just before the end of stage two, when he and Herbst got together and the contact cut Allgaier’s left-rear tire.

Allgaier survived, but knew he had to play the last lap carefully when Herbst chased him down to make the race-winning pass.

“Riley had a really fast race car, but we had already run into each other like four times, so I knew if I blocked turn three that I was probably getting wrecked,” Allgaier admitted. “That wasn’t going to suffice for the team to walk out of here with a championship.

“[The restart violation later] was a dumb mistake on my part, followed up by a second dumb mistake, and still to have the wherewithal to have the strategy right, get back in it and walk out of here as I champions – I really wanted to win the race, but we did what we had to do to get the bigger prize.”

With 25 Xfinity Series wins and a 20-year NASCAR career that culminated Saturday night with a title at long last, Allgaier cemented his legacy forever as one of the most persistent and well-liked drivers in the sport’s history.

What’s next? At least two more seasons with JR Motorsports, as Allgaier signed a multi-year extension earlier this year, and the hope of future celebrations with his family and team.

But before that time arrives, Allgaier wants to soak in every second of the defining moment in his career to-date.

“This is going to go down for me as one of those weekends where I truly will step back in 10, 15, 20 years, and I’ll look back at the race team that we had and really be proud of what we’ve accomplished,” he noted. “I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ve got a lot of gray hairs because of this sport. … At the end of the day, I think the other racers that I’m around truly know what I believe about the sport and why I want to be here and why I race like I do. I’m not going to say that I’m not aggressive in some regards. I don’t feel like I’m dirty, but I also put my heart and soul on the racetrack each and every lap.

“Friday night before [the championship] race in 2022, we were sitting at dinner. We had like 20 people at dinner. And I said, ‘If I win the championship tomorrow, I am dropping the mic and I’m walking away and I’ll wipe my hands of the sport,’” Allgaier recalled. “And my wife looked at me with a look that I had never seen her give me before, and I realized really quickly that it wasn’t about me per se. So we’re still here, and to be honest with you, tonight makes me ready to go to Daytona. I'm ready to keep this journey going.

“And then whenever I finally walk away from the sport, I don’t really care how many wins we had, and the championship doesn’t really matter. I want people to remember me for me. That’s the true goal in my eyes.”

Allgaier will be honored for his NASCAR Xfinity Series championship on Friday, Nov. 22 during the NASCAR Awards at the Grand Ballroom inside the NASCAR Hall of Fame and Charlotte Convention Center.