Justin Allgaier


Justin Myrl Allgaier is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, driving the No. 7 Chevrolet SS for JR Motorsports and part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 40 Chevrolet ZL1 for JRM.
He is the 2008 ARCA Re/Max Series champion, the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion, and the 2009 NASCAR Nationwide Series Rookie of the Year.

Racing career

Early career and ARCA

Allgaier was born in Springfield, Illinois, and raised in Riverton, Illinois, and began his racing career at the age of five in quarter midgets, winning over one hundred races and five championships. He began stock car racing at thirteen in the UMP Late Model Series, where he competed for three seasons. At the age of sixteen, he made his debut in the ARCA Re/Max Series at the Illinois State Fairgrounds Racetrack, driving the No. 99 Hoosier Tire Midwest/Law Automotive Chevrolet for Ken Schrader; he qualified twenty-ninth and finished seventeenth. He ran two additional races for Kerry Scherer and Bob Schacht, with a best finish of eleventh.
Allgaier ran additional ARCA races in 2003, making six starts in the No. 86 owned by his father Mike. He had a sixth-place finish in his second start at Toledo Speedway, and later the best finish of third at Salem Speedway. The next season, he made only five starts but had a second-place place at Toledo. In addition, he was a representative of the United States in the South Pacific Saloon Car Championship, where he had two top-fives. In 2005, Allgaier ran seven races in ARCA, splitting time between cars owned by Hixson Motorsports and Bobby Gerhart Racing. He won his first career pole at Springfield, setting a new track record, and had four top-five finishes. He also made his NASCAR debut in the Craftsman Truck Series, making four starts in the No. 63 MB Motorsports/Dave Porter Ford. He failed to make five races and did not finish higher than 26th. That year, he appeared on the Discovery Channel program, Driver X: The Race For The Ride. The show's premise was Jack Roush searching for new talent to drive Roush Racing-prepared vehicles in NASCAR's top 3 series.
In 2006, Allgaier made his first full-time run in ARCA, ending tenth. He got his first career win at the Illinois State Fairgrounds Racetrack, becoming the first Springfield area resident to win in the 72-year history of championship auto racing at the fairgrounds. He made three more Truck races for MB and had a twenty-first-place finish at Kansas Speedway. In 2007, he won his second career ARCA race at Salem and finished fourth in points. He also won two features in a midget car at Angell Park Speedway and placed 3rd in the Chili Bowl behind Tony Stewart and J. J. Yeley.
Allgaier returned for another full season in ARCA in 2008, driving for his family team once again. He won six races, including the final three, and won the series championship by a slim margin. He broke Frank Kimmel's eight-year streak of winning the championship in that series. He also returned to NASCAR, finishing 21st in a Truck race at Kentucky Speedway.

2008–2013: Nationwide Series

In May 2008, Allgaier signed a contract with Penske Racing to drive four races in their No. 12 Dodge in the NASCAR Nationwide Series in the final part of the year. His best finish in the Penske Truck Rental Dodge was eleventh at Phoenix.
Allgaier was then signed to drive the car full-time in 2009. Because of the acquisition of Penske Racing sponsor Alltel by Cellco Partners, a joint venture of Verizon and Vodafone, their Sprint Cup sponsorship was legislated out of the sport by NASCAR's agreement with Sprint in that series to prohibit sponsorship by other wireless telephone companies. This allowed Verizon to move its sponsorship to the Nationwide Series, where it is not prohibited, and Allgaier raced a full season with Verizon sponsorship for what became known as Penske Championship Racing. Allgaier won his first career pole in NASCAR at Memphis Motorsports Park.
During the 2009 NAPA 200 in Montreal, Allgaier had the fastest car early in the race and, while running sixth, tried to make a pass on Canadian road ace Ron Fellows and Kyle Busch. Instead, he caused a wreck that took both him and Fellows out of the race and damaged Busch's hopes of winning. After this incident, Allgaier took some lessons at Fellows' road racing driving school to better his road course skills, which turned out to come in handy in the following years when he won several Nationwide/Xfinity Series road course races.
In 2010, Allgaier had a similar season but would win his first Nationwide Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway on March 20 and improve to fourth in the standings at the end of the year. He was the highest-finishing series regular in the series standings that year, as the top three finishers in points were all full-time Cup Series drivers.
Allgaier was rumored to be moving up to the Sprint Cup Series in 2011 with Penske to drive the No. 12 Cup car, replacing Brad Keselowski, who was moving to the team's No. 2 car. However, Penske had to shut down the No. 12 due to a lack of sponsorship, and Allgaier would remain in the Nationwide Series, moving to Turner Motorsports where he would drive the team's new No. 31 Chevrolet Impala. In the inaugural STP 300 at Chicagoland Speedway after passing Carl Edwards who ran out of fuel on the last lap, Allgaier won the race. Even though Allgaier ran out of fuel himself after, he was able to cross the finish line before third-place Trevor Bayne to finish first. He almost won at Road America but ran out of fuel on the caution on the final lap and finished nineteenth.
In 2012, Allgaier returned to the renamed Turner Scott Motorsports; he passed Jacques Villeneuve on the final lap to win the NAPA Auto Parts 200 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Quebec.
In August 2013, it was announced that Allgaier would make his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut the following month at Chicagoland Speedway, driving there and in two other races in Phoenix Racing's No. 51 Chevrolet, which had just been purchased by Turner Scott co-owner Harry Scott Jr. Allgaier finished 27th in his debut, and ran races for the team later in the year at Kansas Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway and Phoenix International Raceway.

2014: First Cup season

In January 2014, it was announced that Allgaier would compete full-time for Rookie of the Year in the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, driving for the now-renamed HScott Motorsports in the No. 51 Chevrolet SS.
Allgaier led four laps in the Daytona 500 and crashed with seven laps to go. He finished 27th. After consecutive top-twenty finishes, Allgaier had a great finish in the Food City 500, avoiding several wrecks to finish 17th. At Talladega, Allgaier nearly won his first Cup series victory in the Aaron's 499, running in the top five and contending for victory with nine laps to go. He lost drafting help from Kurt Busch and, as a result, lost multiple spots, finishing 27th.
Allgaier led fifteen laps during the first Pocono race in early June. Taking the lead with less than 35 laps to go, Allgaier led until a yellow came out with nineteen laps to go, forcing Allgaier to make a pit stop.
At Daytona in the Coke Zero 400, Allgaier ran in the top ten early in the race. He was caught up in "The Big One" that took out over 27 cars. Allgaier, while trying to avoid wrecking, tapped Kyle Busch, who was already wrecking. Allgaier's contact caused Busch to come back onto the apron and be t-boned by Cole Whitt.
Allgaier missed the field for the GEICO 500, failing to qualify for the first time in his Cup career. The new restrictor-plate qualifying process became controversial amongst drivers and fans because many drivers complained that they barely managed to make the show because of the system. However, in the following race at Martinsville, Allgaier would take the lead late in the race, leading four laps and finishing seventeenth. Allgaier finished 29th in the Cup Series standings for 2014 and third in the Rookie of the Year standings behind Austin Dillon and Kyle Larson.

2015

Allgaier began his season with a crash in the Daytona 500. He rebounded at Phoenix three weeks later, running in the top ten late. After contact with Tony Stewart, Allgaier faded in the waning laps, finishing 18th. The next week at Auto Club Speedway, Allgaier ran as high as eighth and finished twelfth, his career-best finish at the time. He scored his first top ten at Bristol in the No. 51, finishing eighth. He then finished 18th at Richmond after spending most of the race running as high as second, and while suffering from a stomach cramp. Allgaier had some good runs at short tracks, such as the second Bristol race and both Martinsville races, but failed to record another top-ten.
On October 2, 2015, it was announced that Allgaier parted ways with HScott Motorsports, and was replaced in 2016 by Clint Bowyer. On October 28, 2015, it was announced that Allgaier would take his sponsor Brandt to drive the No. 7 for JR Motorsports full-time in the Xfinity Series season in 2016, replacing Regan Smith.
Allgaier finished 30th in the Cup Series standings, one spot short of matching his career-best season result.

2016: Return to Xfinity Series and sports car debut

After talking to Dale Earnhardt Jr. during driver intros at Darlington Raceway in the same pickup truck, Allgaier formed a connection with Earnhardt and eventually signed to drive with JR Motorsports for the 2016 season. Allgaier started his season on a good note. While his teammate Chase Elliott won the season-opening PowerShares QQQ 300 at Daytona, Allgaier finished twelfth. Allgaier picked up two top-tens in the next two races at Atlanta and Las Vegas. He led fifteen laps in Atlanta and finished ninth in Las Vegas. Allgaier had his best finish of the spring at Talladega during the Sparks Energy 300, in which he led one lap and took advantage of Joey Logano's final lap wreck to finish second behind his teammate Elliott Sadler, giving JRM a 1–2 finish.
Allgaier appeared to have won the July race in Daytona. After passing Aric Almirola on the final lap, Allgaier led to the yellow-and-checkered flags to finish first. NASCAR determined that the yellow had flown with Almirola leading, dropping Allgaier to a second-runner-up of the season, while giving the win to Almirola. Allgaier later finished second yet again at the Food City 300 after passing Kyle Larson on the final lap to place second to Austin Dillon, his third runner-up finish of the season.
On August 20, Allgaier returned to the Cup Series to drive the No. 46 Chevrolet at the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race, replacing former HScott teammate Michael Annett after he suffered from flu-like symptoms. Allgaier got into a crash with Kyle Busch when Allgaier wrecked at the same time as Busch.
Allgaier made his Porsche GT3 Cup Brasil debut in 2016 as a co-driver for a team that is sponsored by his NASCAR Xfinity Series sponsor, Brandt Agriculture. He made two starts in the Brandt-sponsored No. 7 Porsche with Miguel Paludo as the driver, both of which were in endurance races, the Goiânia and Interlagos races.
Even though he went winless throughout the whole season, he ended up finishing third in the final standings behind Elliott Sadler and eventual champion Daniel Suárez.