Mid-Season Report Card: Justin Allgaier and the No. 7 BRANDT Professional Agriculture Team

Mike Campbell | 7/22/2021

Brandt Justin Allgaier News Unilever XFINITY Series

With eight top-3 finishes this year, including two victories, Allgaier and the No. 7 team hope to keep the momentum rolling as the regular season winds down.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (July 22, 2021) - Heading into the two-week Olympic break for the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Justin Allgaier and the No. 7 team have been on a roll. Dating back to the end of March, Allgaier has scored an astounding eight top-three finishes over the course of 14 NXS events, including two victories at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Darlington Raceway. In fact, in 19 starts in 2021, the JR Motorsports driver has placed inside of the top three an eye-popping 42 percent of the time.

"2021 has been a very interesting season thus far," said Allgaier. "From the way our season started, with all of the bad luck this group faced, to be able to rebound and run as strong as we have has been a testament to all of the hard work by everyone here at JR Motorsports."

Entering 2021 off a career-best runner-up result in the 2020 NXS Playoffs, Allgaier looked to keep the momentum steaming in the right direction. However, Lady Luck had other ideas for the Illinois native, as incidents in the opening three events mired Allgaier deep in the championship standings. The ship righted in the following two races, with Allgaier running up front and earning a best finish of eighth at Phoenix Raceway.

"Obviously, the beginning part of the year didn’t go the way we were hoping it would," added Allgaier. "But we had a lot of positives. We had some good speed and felt like we had what you would normally look for heading into a new season, but things just didn't seem to want to go our way. It wasn't just one thing, but it seemed like a multitude of different things that were keeping us from getting the finishes we should have.”"

Following Phoenix, the series headed to Atlanta for the final race before the first off-weeks of the young season. Lining up in sixth, Allgaier took the lead with just under 50 laps remaining and never looked back, driving off to earn a commanding victory, his first at the 1.54-mile oval.

"Winning at Atlanta was definitely special. That was a track that I had wanted to win at for a long time and to be able to back up the strong runs heading into that weekend and to come away with a win was definitely a super positive," said Allgaier.

Riding that momentum, Allgaier went on a tear when the series got back to action, earning a combined total of eight top fives and 10 top 10s over the ensuing 14 races, including a return to Victory Lane at "The Track Too Tough to Tame" in Darlington. The victory at "The Lady in Black" marked the earliest point in a season in Allgaier’s career that the Illinois native had scored multiple checkered flags. Impressively, with the exception of the rain-shortened event at Talladega Superspeedway and an issue with the rear end at Mid-Ohio, Allgaier has placed 12th or better in every race since the Atlanta triumph.

To accompany the two victories in the first half of the season, all of Allgaier's top-five finishes have come while running inside the top three. This includes a trio of runner-up results at Texas Motor Speedway, Nashville Superspeedway and the most recent NXS event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

"Throughout the course of the summer we've had some really good runs and strong finishes," said Allgaier. "Even though I wish we could've been one spot better for a handful of those races, it's been great to be up front and in contention. And that comes with one thing that hasn’t wavered, the speed that we’ve taken to the racetrack every week.

"The guys here at JRM and at the Hendrick engine department have done a fantastic job and have been working overtime to keep us going in the right direction. Everyone in the fab shop has done phenomenal work maximizing the details of our cars and the teams have done a great job just building really quality, nice racecars to bring to the track every week. It definitely is something that we have used to our advantage and allows us to go out there and be in contention week in and week out while doing the best we can to execute each and every week."

Turning the page to the second-half of 2021, Allgaier knows the importance of keeping the momentum going heading into the playoffs.

"Heading into the playoffs with as much momentum as possible is always important, and with the tracks coming up, I feel extremely confident that we will end this regular season on a strong note, do our best to get as many points as possible and be ready to hit the ground running in the playoffs."

Over the seven tracks that remain in the regular season (Watkins Glen, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, Michigan International Speedway, Daytona International Speedway, Darlington, Richmond Raceway and Bristol Motor Speedway) Allgaier has been stout, earning a combined total of four wins, 29 top fives and 50 top 10s. All four of the JRM driver's victories are at the final three tracks of the regular season, with Allgaier being the defending race winner at both Darlington and Richmond.

Given his proven record at the tracks that remain, the veteran driver knows what lies ahead and what it takes to make a strong run in the postseason.

"I feel like the playoffs really suits our No. 7 team," said Allgaier. "It's a situation that I feel like this group thrives at and it gives me a lot of excitement heading into the playoffs this year. Hopefully we can keep doing what we’ve been doing and execute how we need to to be in position to make that Championship 4 and fight for the title in Phoenix."

It's something Allgaier has a lot of practice in during his career at JRM. He has made the Championship 4 in four of the past five seasons and was the runner-up last season. Plus, as an added bonus, the winner-take-all race is held at Phoenix, a track that Allgaier has won at twice during his career.

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XFINITY Series Schedule

  • March 30 01:30 PM ET
    ToyotaCare 250Richmond Raceway
  • April 6 07:30 PM ET
    NXS Spring Race at MartinsvilleMartinsville Speedway
  • April 13 01:30 PM ET
    Andy’s Frozen Custard 300Texas Motor Speedway
  • April 20 04:00 PM ET
    Ag-Pro 300Talladega Superspeedway
  • April 27 01:30 PM ET
    A-GAME 200Dover International Speedway

XFINITY Series Standings

After Dead On Tools 250

Martinsville Speedway | 10/28/2023
Results are not available.