MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Sept. 25, 2024) — Justin Allgaier is the top seed in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs, on the strength of two wins, seven top-five and 15 top-10 finishes in the regular season. Allgaier is the only driver to make the Playoffs every season since they began in 2016. Is this the year he brings home the title?
Crew chief Jim Pohlman outlined the three things that he and the No. 7 team need to do in the seven-race, winner-take-all run to the end of the season.
The Final Stage
“We need to finish Stage 3,” Pohlman said. “It seems like we’ve had really good cars in Stage One and Stage Two and not always manage to finish it out. Stage 3 is our main focus to win races in the Playoffs.”
Focus
“The emphasis is still on winning. I still think you have to win in the Playoffs to advance, and it’s nice to have a good points position, but those are easily diminished with the types of tracks that you go to. In the first round you have Talladega and the Roval. Those are two wild-card races where anything can happen.”
Consistency
“The consistency of the car is there, as is the speed and the driver. We’ve shown each week that we are plenty capable of winning or be up front and leading laps. The consistency in finishes, I completely understand why the worry is there, and obviously it’s there for all of us. Some things are circumstantial when we have issues, and some of them are of our own doing. It’s hard to not be aggressive, but at the same time, positioning our car at the right time to capitalize is going to be important.”
Asked to point out a wild-card race in the Playoffs, Pohlman was blunt. “They’re all wild-card races and as the rounds go by, the races get more and more important. They all rate wild-card status. Kansas is a 1.5-mile and its own animal, but you are going so fast there you can get wrecked really easy. Talladega is obviously a wild-card. Your day can be over in a heartbeat. You get to the Roval and it’s the last round and you saw it last year; we were on the front row in a great position and we got wrecked. They’re all wild-card races. There’s a percentage of things that can go wrong at any track. Each track is prone to different things going wrong. Knowing each one of those issues is important to solve those issues.”
The No. 7 team for JR Motorsports:
Driver: Justin Allgaier
Crew Chief: Jim Pohlman
Lead engineer: Adam Richardson
Second engineer: Eric Long
Car chief: Corey Shea
Mechanics: Dave Sumner, Adam Rischer
Spotter: Eddie D’Hondt
Truck driver: Mark “Hollywood” Armstrong