Although he entered the season with 16 career NASCAR Xfinity Series wins, it had been a long stretch since Justin Allgaier had driven into Victory Lane.
His last win, his second of 2021, came in the ninth race of the season at Darlington Raceway. Allgaier had gone more than a year between wins once before, from his victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2018 through his win at Pheonix Raceway in 2019, but the driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet has always proven to be at the front of the field contending for wins and collecting top-five finishes.
He has finished in the top five a total of 116 times in his 383 Xfinity starts, nearly a third of the time. He has 225 top-10 finishes, as well, nearly a two-thirds ratio.
It was a pattern the driver affectionately known as “Little Gator” developed in his career in the ARCA Menards Series.
He started in the series as a 16-year-old, running three races in 2002 with a best finish of 11th on the dirt mile at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds. His first top 10 came the next spring at Toledo Speedway, and his first top-five finish, a third-place result, came that fall at Salem Speedway.
His first win, fittingly, came in his hometown race at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in 2006 with former ARCA winner and legendary dirt late model driver Larry Moore calling the shots on the pit box.
Allgaier made his first run at the series championship in 2007, scoring a win on the demanding high banks at Salem Speedway and finishing fourth in the final standings with a total of 11 top-10 finishes.
The 2008 season is when Allgaier leapt into the national spotlight. He scored wins at Salem, Cayuga Speedway and Pocono Raceway and put himself in contention for the title. As series leaders Scott Speed and Ricky Stenhouse battled over the final stretch of the season – Speed won races at Kentucky Speedway, Berlin Raceway and Nashville Superspeedway in the second half of the year – they didn’t have the consistency to open up a large gap in the standings. Frank Kimmel reeled off wins at Springfield, DuQuoin and Salem to put himself in title contention, too.
Allgaier then took the bull by the horns, winning on the road course at New Jersey Motorsports Park and then at Talladega Superspeedway to be one of four drivers with a legitimate shot at the championship in the finale at Toledo Speedway. Speed and Stenhouse Jr. famously took each other out, and from there Allgaier drove to the victory, sweeping the final three races of the year and shocking the racing world with the series championship.
Allgaier has already locked himself into the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs as he looks to score his first series championship. He finished second in the title fight in 2020.
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