MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Feb. 13, 2024) – In their first season together in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, crew chief Jim Pohlman and driver Justin Allgaier came just one position short of the series championship in the final race of 2023.
This year, the mission remains the same…just one position better.
The full cast of the BRANDT Professional Agriculture team returns for another run at the title, led by Pohlman and including lead engineer Adam Richardson, second engineer/tire specialist Eric Long, veteran car chief Cory Shea, front-end mechanic and at-track car chief Dave Sumner and underneath mechanic Adam Rischer. Allgaier’s spotter remains veteran Eddie D’Hondt.
The near-miss on the 2023 title came down to the final turn on the final lap of the final race of the season, a total margin of less than half a second. Pohlman said the key to overcoming that small speck of time between first place and second was preparation.
“We’ve worked on that all offseason,” the Illinois native said. “The changes that we’ve made have allowed us to be more prepared while utilizing the same amount of time, to cover more ground and be more effective in preparation. We’re not going to reinvent the setups, but the preparation side is what is more important.”
Allgaier has been in contention for the series championship in every season of his tenure at JRM, earning six Championship 4 appearances in his eight seasons, and 2023’s runner-up finish was his best result and his is first season wHis first season with Pohlman.
“Obviously it takes a lot of luck,” Pohlman said. “Last year in Phoenix, we spun early and put ourselves behind, but we got ourselves right back in position. We had a really good long-run car last year, but the short-run speed was missing for about six to eight laps on sticker tires. The others in the Championship 4 were better on stickers and they kicked our butts for that time, but after that it was game on. You never know, that late-race restart was a godsend and gave us another chance and Justin put himself in the right position. It’s hard. If you build a race car that has short-run speed, when you go back this year, you know what will happen? We’ll need long-run speed.
“I don’t know. It’s one of those things where the main goal is just to get to Phoenix. You practice for 26 races and get it right, when the playoffs start and you make your way through to Phoenix, that’s a huge feat in itself. Those four guys (the Championship 4) are all champions if you get to Phoenix. What happens on the last day, in the last race, it’s just one race. I don’t know where or what else I would do different, other than work harder, focus in on more detail and try and bring a better piece this year. First, we’ve got to get there.”
Pohlman said that the path to Phoenix is the same as it was last year and the year before that.
“Winning in the playoffs is paramount,” he said. “I said that all last year. We were able to accomplish that in Round 1 at Bristol, and then obviously the heart-stopper at Martinsville to get us to Phoenix. Two wins in each round of the playoffs gets you to Phoenix no matter what. You look at Cole Custer. He only won two races all season long, and he won the last one. There’re 26 races leading into the playoffs and those are practice races, 26 chances that you have.”
The fact that series will see the return of AJ Allmendinger to full-time status as well as a number of Cup Series regulars making occasional visits on Saturdays is a point to consider as well.
“You can go into it as the regular-season champion and point your way in, and that’s great,” he said. “I don’t know that you’ll be able to do that this year. AJ (Allmendinger) is back, and there’s a lot of Cup guys stepping back, cars that will be filled through those 26 races, so it’s going to be a little harder to earn all those points. But every year, the regular-season champion earns about the same number of points. I’m hoping it’s a breakout year. I’d love to win double-digits, 10 races, and I can sit here and say that’s where I want to be, but I’ll be realistic and say just get a win or two before the playoffs and you have to win in the playoffs.”
Pohlman called out a couple of races in particular in the first couple of postseason rounds.
“When you get into the playoffs, the key races for me are Kansas, the first race in the first round and Homestead, the first race of the second round. That’s a lofty goal. Homestead, statistically, is Justin’s worst race track, and I feel like we had a shot to win that race last year. We’re going back guns a-blazing and I have Homestead circled on my list. I really want to win Homestead with Justin Allgaier. You never know what is going to change. I feel like it’s just another track we can go and win on. We’ve changed his mind, the minds of the guys on the team and now it’s time to go out and do it and change the minds of the fans and the critics in the grandstands that say you can’t do it.”
In terms of goals, Pohlman wants another shot at the title and has a plan to get back to the winner-take-all finale.
“We’ve got 26 races (before the playoffs), and I’d like to rattle 10 of them off as wins, but it’s patience. Knowing your place, knowing where you’re at, building momentum at the right time, peaking at the right time…those are all just important things to me.”
Both Pohlman and Allgaier are Illinois natives, and of course that means another race with a circle around it is the return trip to the streets of Chicago.
“I’d like to win Chicago, being my home track and Justin’s,” he said. “Not winning the inaugural hurts, but I think that will be a good show this year. Hopefully the rain stays away. That Saturday was off the hook and the rain really dampened Sunday for them. It’s nice going to a new venue and being the first to showcase what we do in NASCAR. I’ve got that one circled.”
There are others as well that would look good in the trophy room, Pohlman quipped.
“We love Darlington, I’ve got that circled, and Dover is just my favorite track. I’ve been fortunate to win a couple of times there, but I would love to win with Justin at Dover and he’s really strong there.”
There is continuity as well in the ranks of the No. 7 team, Pohlman said, and that is a huge advantage…especially the driver.
“I’m really proud to say that the No. 7 team, with the exception of a rear tire changer, has all stuck together,” he said. “It’s a tough day and age. What we do at the NXS level is we grow people, train people so that they move on to a bigger career. It’s not a young team, but we have assembled the guys who are happy in their career, and excited about the opportunity they have. The biggest thing is Justin. That’s where people see it…he’s the most popular driver. You win these accolades and it’s great, but it’s the everyday things that makes them want to stay. Behind the scenes, he’s the biggest part of that. He treats them right, whether it’s winning Martinsville and grandfather clocks or winning Bristol and swords, whatever it might be, he wants everybody on his team to know that he understands what’s given. It’s not only a testament to what we have going on with the No. 7 team, it’s a testament to our driver and who he is. That’s a really good spot for us to be in right now.”
Allgaier was a warrior on road courses in 2023, and the loss of both Road America-where Allgaier had several chances to win-and Indy’s road course in favor of the historic oval–will be a factor in the run-up to the playoffs, Pohlman said.
“We lost Road America and the Indy road course,” Pohlman remarked. “He’s pretty good at Indy on the oval and won there, and he knows the lift points and just what it’s like going down into a flat corner. It’s tough. It’s unique and unlike any other track we go to. It’s nice for him to have experience there.”
The remaining road circuits on the schedule will be uniformly difficult, and the addition of both Allmendinger and 2023’s big story, Shane Van Gisbergen, will make them more difficult, he said.
“They’re going to be tougher this year,” Pohlman said of the road-racing slate. “You’ve got AJ Allmendinger back, and Shane van Gisbergen will be with us. I think it will take him (van Gisbergen) a little bit of time to get acclimated to the tires, a race or two, and get comfortable throwing a stock car around on them. He’ll be in the top five or a threat.
“I’ve had confidence in our road-course stuff after last year. We could have won three or four of them last year, including Sonoma, Portland, Road America and Watkins Glen. We didn’t have the blazing speed other guys had, but we were really good. You have to have fast cars, fast drivers, but you have to have luck too.”
Technical changes are slight from 2023 to this season, with the biggest being a modification to the rear windshields and a switch to two nine-gallon fuel cans rather than the 11-gallon cans that have been used for many years.
“The rear-glass slots changed a little, but that isn’t anything like last year’s skew change,” Pohlman said. “That really changed the car, how it drives, how they manipulate and drive in traffic. Their ‘bubble’ got a lot bigger when they took out the skew.
“With the slots in the back glass, it should not affect the car like it did last year. It’ll probably just add a little downforce and that will help stabilize our cars a little bit. It’s a small change, relative to the previous skew change.”
Pohlman said he didn’t think the change in fuel cans would be major, other than most of the pit stops would require both cans rather than just a single.
“There might be situational things, but for the most part I’m not anticipating a huge change there. It should still be the same on pit stops, but each track is unique.”
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