- Name
- Justin Allgaier
- Birth Date
- June 6, 1986
- Hometown
- Riverton, Ill.
JR Motorsports’ winningest driver, Justin Allgaier, returns for his eighth season with the organization following a strong 2022 season in which the Illinois native scored three wins and earned his way into the Championship 4 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs for the fifth time in the last seven seasons. To accompany the three wins, Allgaier recorded 16 top fives, 23 top 10s and concluded the 2022 season third in the championship standings.
The three victories for Allgaier marked the third time in the previous five outings that the veteran driver has scored three or more wins in a season, with his first win of the year coming at Darlington Raceway in May, before securing the checkered flag at Nashville Superspeedway in June and New Hampshire Motor Speedway in July. The win at New Hampshire also carried special significance, as it marked the first time that JRM had visited Victory Lane at the one-mile oval.
The longest-tenured full-time driver at JRM, Allgaier now has 16 wins since joining the team in 2016 and 19 career NXS victories in 405 starts (along with 128 top-five and 242 top-10 finishes). While racing for JRM, Allgaier has qualified for the NXS Playoffs in seven consecutive seasons and advanced to the Championship 4 five times. Despite not advancing to the final round of the playoffs in 2021, Allgaier was able to capture a pair of victories at the storied tracks of Atlanta Motor Speedway and then at Darlington. Those victories, considered bucket list wins by Allgaier, propelled the veteran driver into a summer stretch that saw Allgaier finish inside the top 10 in 20 of the 24 events that followed Darlington, including the final 12 races to close out the season.
Allgaier found a love for the sport a young age. He was born in 1986 to Mike and Dorothy Allgaier, two individuals with a passion for racing. Young Allgaier climbed behind the wheel of his first race car, a quarter-midget roadster, when he was just 5 years old. Showing instant talent, Allgaier became a five-time quarter-midget champion by the age of 12. From quarter-midgets, he advanced to midget and micro-sprint features and then began racing in the UMP Late Model Series.
In 2001, at the age of 14, Allgaier became the youngest driver to advance to an A-Main at the Chili Bowl, the star-studded midget racing event in Tulsa, Okla. When he turned 16, Allgaier dabbled in the ARCA Racing Series, running part-time over the next four years.
Switching to full time in 2006, Allgaier earned one win and finished 10th in the ARCA standings. Just two years later, he won the 2008 ARCA Racing Series championship after visiting Victory Lane six times throughout the season. That was the same year he made his maiden start in the NXS with Team Penske at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
In his first full-time NXS season in 2009 for Penske, Allgaier earned rookie-of-the-year honors. He followed that up with his first series win (Bristol Motor Speedway) and a fourth-place finish in the championship point standings in 2010, the highest among NXS regulars.
More success came in 2011 with Turner Motorsports, which marked Allgaier’s first season with BRANDT Professional Agriculture as his sponsor. He drove to his second career victory, coming at his home track of Chicagoland Speedway, as well as that of Springfield, Ill.–based BRANDT. The win helped catapult Allgaier to third in the NXS championship standings. A year later, in 2012, Allgaier found his way to Victory Lane on the road course at Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
After six years competing in the NXS, Allgaier transitioned to HScott Motorsports to run in the NASCAR Cup Series. He made four starts in 2013, making his debut at Chicagoland, and spent the next two years racing full time in the No. 51 BRANDT Professional Agriculture Chevrolet.
Following the stint in the Cup Series, Allgaier and BRANDT returned to NXS competition in 2016 and to the No. 7 Chevrolet for JRM. Driving the most consistent season of his NXS career, Allgaier ended 2016 with 13 top-five and 27 top-10 finishes, finishing third in the NXS championship point standings after advancing to the Championship 4 in the NXS Playoffs.
In his sophomore season at JRM, Allgaier amassed two wins, 10 top-five and 17 top-10 finishes. The victories propelled him into the NXS Playoffs for the second year in a row. Advancing to the Championship 4, Allgaier ultimately finished third in the standings for the second season running and the third time in his career. Along with two of his teammates, Allgaier joined the three-car JRM contingent to sweep the top-three in points for the first time in series history.
The 2018 season brought more career-best numbers for Allgaier as he racked up five wins that helped him secure the regular-season championship. Allgaier and the No. 7 team gave the NXS Playoffs all they had, but a string of bad luck kept them from making a run for the NXS championship. The JRM driver ended the year with 17 top fives, 24 top 10s and 741 laps led. He captured victories at Dover, Iowa Speedway, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Road America and Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Allgaier’s fourth year at JRM saw him make another run at the title after a victory at Phoenix Raceway in November secured him a spot in the Championship 4 for the third time in four seasons. The No. 7 team had a strong season overall, putting together a string of 16 consecutive top-10 finishes during the second half of the year and earning an average finish of 3.6 in the six playoff races leading up to the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Allgaier battled hard in the final race of 2019, but ultimately a cut tire took him out of contention and he ended the year fourth in the NXS championship standings. In all, the Illinois native earned one win, 16 top fives and 24 top 10s with 607 laps led.
In 2020, Allgaier and the No. 7 team overcame great adversity during the regular season to make a strong run for the championship. After on-track incidents plagued the team during the first half of the year, they finally found their stride, with Allgaier earning the victory at Dover and backing it up with a weekend sweep at Richmond just three weeks later. The JRM driver ended the year with a career-high 1,008 laps led, 12 stage wins and earned a career-best second in the NXS championship standings.
2021 saw Allgaier and the No. 7 team again battle back from adversity, after incidents in three of the opening five events saw the team mired in the standings. But, thanks to the strength of victories at Atlanta and Darlington, Allgaier was able to catch fire and charge into the playoffs and into the Round of 8 for the sixth consecutive year. Ultimately, Allgaier fell just one position short of qualifying for the Championship 4, despite a strong fifth-place finish in the penultimate event at Martinsville Speedway. Overall, Allgaier concluded the 2021 season fifth in the final standings with two wins, 16 top fives, 24 top 10s and 468 laps led.
2022 was a historic season for both Allgaier and JRM as a whole, as the organization amassed a record 15 victories throughout the season. For Allgaier, the veteran driver became just the 10th driver in NXS history to make more than 400 career starts.
Entering the 2023 season, Allgaier will have a new crew chief atop the pit box, as Jim Pohlman comes on board to call the shots for the No. 7 team. Pohlman previously helped Allgaier secure the 2008 ARCA Menards Series championship and comes to JRM from Richard Childress Racing.
Outside of racing in the Xfinity Series, Allgaier enjoys spending time with his wife Ashley and daughters Harper and Willow, graphic design, hunting, wake surfing and competing in select dirt races throughout the year.