XFINITY: Allgaier Overcomes Seemingly Insurmountable Adversity for Championship
Justin Allgaier needed a miracle, and he got it.
At the end of a wild and unpredictable NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway, Allgaier finally took home his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series championship with a second-place finish in an overtime finish on Saturday evening.
Grabbing his first championship in his 14th full-time season is already a big enough story, but it pales in comparison to the tale that was Saturday night's race. The path to a championship for Allgaier was littered with obstacles this weekend, some of which seemed too big to hurdle over. But Allgaier, crew chief Jim Pohlman, spotter Eddie D'Hondt, and the No. 7 JR Motorsports team kept their heads down through every issue.
Allgaier was handed a brand new No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro to chase the championship with this weekend by Pohlman, and in the opening laps of practice, Allgaier knew he had a car capable of finally achieving his championship dream. But the dream weekend turned into a nightmare on Allgaier's fourth lap of practice.
Ahead of Allgaier, Brennan Poole blew and engine. Allgaier, joined by Aric Almirola, and Brandon Jones, slid in the fluid on the track and slammed into the wall, destroying their primary race cars. Allgaier, who is usually as even-keeled of a guy as you'll ever see lost it. He pounded his fist on equipment in the NASCAR Xfinity Series garage. His race-winning car was destroyed, and now he faced an uphill battle from the back of the pack with an untested backup car.
"Knowing him for the amount of time I've known him, to see the look on his face when he got out of that race car, it was disappointment for me," Pohlman said. "Because he knew how much this team had worked on that car, how much effort we had put into it, and he, it was like you lost your first child when he got out of that car looking at me."
Pohlman, who regards Allgaier as a top-notch person, said Allgaier apologized for crashing the car immediately after he climbed from the car.
"He wasn't worried about himself in that moment. He wasn't thinking about like, oh my gosh my chances just went down the drain. He was looking at me like I'm sorry I wrecked your race car, and I had to let him know that it's okay, we're going to fight through it."
Turns out, the backup car was pretty damn good too. Allgaier knifed his way through the field and by the end of the opening Stage of Saturday night's race, the 38-year-old driver had climbed up to sixth. His car was head and shoulders above everyone else, and it seemed like just a matter of time before Allgaier would take over the race.
However, while running inside the top-five in the closing laps of Stage 2, Allgaier made contact with Riley Herbst, which cut down his left rear tire. Fortunately, Allgaier was able to limp back to the Stage break without having to pit, but he had dropped to 10th-place.
Justin Allgaier takes rear damage after making contact with Riley Herbst and manages to finish the stage 😳#Championship4 pic.twitter.com/OmWpzHz6tS
— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) November 10, 2024
On the ensuing restart to begin the final Stage, Allgaier made two back-breaking mistakes, which seemingly ruined his championship hopes. On the initial Stage restart, Allgaier was flagged for a restart violation for changing lanes before he reached the finish line.
PENALTY: The No. 7 has been issued a restart violation and must serve a pass-through. #Championship4 pic.twitter.com/VF2MLBjwzS
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) November 10, 2024
As Allgaier was performing his pass-through penalty for the restart violation, he was again flagged for speeding on pit road. Due to the second penalty, Allgaier was mired back in 28th, and he found himself a lap off the pace. His championship hopes were toast. Even Allgaier, as optimistic as he is in stressful situations didn't think a comeback was possible.
"No, 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," Allgaier said in his post-race press conference. "If it could go wrong this weekend, it went wrong, and the team never gave up. I could tell the disappointment in their voices, they went radio silent for a while, and I could tell the disappointment in their voices. And that’s a hard spot to be in as a driver."
Then, Pohlman pulled a strategy call, which left Allgaier on track after a green flag pit sequence from the leaders, which would get him back into the game with an opportune caution, which came out on Lap 155 for a blown tire, and crash for Anthony Alfredo.
Allgaier had finally found a way to get back on the lead lap.
Back in the game, Allgaier worked his way to the runner-up driver in the Championship 4 fight, and while Cole Custer seemingly had his second consecutive championship sewed up, Allgaier began to finally make some ground up. As Allgaier looked like he was about to make his move on Custer, Leland Honeyman crashed with three laps to go, which sent the race to overtime.
During a pit stop under the caution before overtime, Allgaier had an issue launching out of his pit stall, which caused him to lose a couple of positions. Once again, it looked like Allgaier was cooked. However, after being pumped up by his crew chief, Allgaier came to life on the restart and as Custer and Austin Hill got into each other and went up the hill in Turns 1 and 2, Allgaier found himself as the Championship 4 leader in the runner-up spot.
"When I got down into [Turn] 1, I started to slip the right front a lot. I drove it as deep as I could, and I saw [Custer] trying to get to my outside, so I moved up a little bit to block that and the 00 got into the back of me a little bit, which we're going for a championship. I expect that," Hill said. "He didn't do anything wrong. And it just got me and him both out of the racetrack, and it allowed [Allgaier] to drive by both of us underneath."
Then, Parker Retzlaff would crash to send the race into double-overtime. On the final restart of the race, an inspired Allgaier, who had scuffed tires compared to fresh tires for everyone else, like he was shot out of a cannon launched past Riley Herbst for the race lead.
After the two cars made contact for the second time in the race, Herbst applied the pressure to Allgaier for the race win. Allgaier, thinking big picture, let Herbst go by, and he crossed the finish line with a second-place finish, and in the end, that second-place finish was good enough for Allgaier to finally etch his name in the history books as an Xfinity Series champion.
Herbst Snags Signature Win; Wants Respect
While it was a big deal for Allgaier to take the championship, it was an equally big deal for Herbst and Stewart-Haas Racing, which competed in its final NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday night, who won the race. In his post-race press conference, Herbst took a shot at media members that he feels are constantly taking shots at him on social media.
"People, the first win was a fluke. It didn't count. The second win didn't count because it was a weird package, and I just moved him. So, I'm curious to see what they'll say about this one, how they'll discredit me. Everybody in the media," Herbst pointed.
Herbst said he was determined to win Saturday night's race, and admitted that had Allgaier not given him the inside lane on the final lap that he was prepared to move the championship contender for the race win.
"No, I was going to move him," Herbst said, "He luckily, I think I listened to his spotter replay and Eddie said that, 'We're not racing him,' so, he kind of gave me the bottom, but yeah, I was going to move him off the bottom in [Turns] 3 and 4."
Herbst, who had been linked to a third 23XI Racing car during Silly Season, currently hasn't announced any plans for next season. As 23XI Racing was one of the two teams that didn't sign the 2025 Charter Agreement, and is currently locked in a legal battle against NASCAR, there has been some question as to whether that team will continue with its plans to expand to three cars. Herbst says he's nervous about what's next for him.
"I don't know. I'm excited, I'm nervous," Herbst explained. "Yeah, I don't know what's going to happen."
Aric Almirola finished third behind Herbst and Allgaier, and in doing so, the driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota GR Supra came up just shy of a championship of his own. Almirola's No. 20 team was battling for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Owners' Championship, but he came up one position shy of the championship.
18-year-old phenom Connor Zilisch continued to impress with a solid fourth-place finish in the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro as he prepares for a full-time campaign in 2025.
Chandler Smith ended his Joe Gibbs Racing tenure with a top-five finish. Smith doesn't currently have any plans announced for the 2025 season.
Championship Hopes Deflated for Custer, Allmendinger, and Hill
Due to the craziness in the double-overtime finish, Allgaier's three competitors for the championship finished in eighth, ninth, and 10th.
It was Custer, who was able to take the runner-up spot in the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship standings with an eighth-place finish. Custer said missing out on a championship, on a night where he was in a position to pull it off, was painful.
"Yeah, it definitely stings," Custer groaned. "There were a lot of points of that race, where it was like, oh man, we're in a really good spot here. But you know, it just came down to that restart with [Austin Hill], and him staying out on older tires, which is their right, we're all going for a championship and I would have done the same thing."
Custer is set to return to the NASCAR Cup Series full-time next season with the Haas Factory Team after a two-year stint back in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
AJ Allmendinger took the third spot in the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship race with a ninth-place finish in the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet Camaro, and Austin Hill, who looked to have a shot to win the championship heading into the first overtime finish attempt, wound up fourth in the championship race with a 10th-place finish on Saturday night.
For Allmendinger, who, like Custer, will return to the NASCAR Cup Series next season, it was a frustrating night as he was never really in contention all race long. Allmendinger, who won at Las Vegas a few weeks ago to secure his place in the Championship 4 was baffled by how they came into Phoenix off the mark.
"You know, I told my guys before the weekend started that I wouldn't pick any other guys to go to war with like we did. We had a lot of ups and downs at times, maybe not enough speed at times, me trying to probably push too hard. Happy I could at least get them a win at Vegas. You know, I feel like I've let them down a lot of times this year. Today was disappointing," Allmendinger admitted. "You know, I'm not sure what else we could do from a preparation and effort standpoint, honestly. We spent three weeks working on the car, and countless hours on the sim, just was never there all weekend, honestly."
Following the race, Hill made a point to go over to Allgaier and his race team to congratulate them on a great season.
"I just told him congrats, and that it's been fun racing him all year. He's a heck of a race car driver," Hill said. "He's going to be a great champion for the Xfinity Series for next year holding that banner. I congratulated his entire No. 7 team, it's been a lot of fun racing with those guys all season long. I feel like Justin and I race each other extremely hard, but we also race with a lot of respect, and I just wanted to show that respect back to him. He's been working at this really, really hard for a really long time."
Hill continued, "If I couldn't have gotten it done, and gotten the championship, I'm glad that he was the one that got it done."
Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.