Jun. 27—Pocono Raceway played a key role in Justin Allgaier’s racing career.
It was August 2008. Allgaier was driving for his family-owned team in the ARCA Series. On the Monday before the race at Pocono, his father Mike informed him that they were out of money, didn’t have any sponsors to keep running and maybe had a couple of races left.
“One of the hardest weeks of my life,” Allgaier said.
He came to Pocono later that week. He ran well at the track previously, but was unable to break through to Victory Lane for a variety of reasons.
A broken transmission. A blown engine. Running over debris and cutting a tire.
This day, however, everything clicked. He led 30 of 80 laps to claim the checkered flag.
Also, before the race, a friend of a friend introduced him to someone from Team Penske. The meeting caused him to be late for driver introductions, but it ultimately led to a job opportunity that brought him to NASCAR.
“I meet this gentleman and we go on to win the race,” Allgaier said. “The rest is history. That’s a special moment for me. Every time I come back up there, I think about that story and how Pocono was the catalyst to allow me to live my dreams out and still be in the sport. It’s pretty special.”
Allgaier hopes to make another special moment at Pocono today at noon in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Pocono Green 225. The race is the opener for the second half of the Cup Series doubleheader, the Explore the Pocono Mountains 350 at 3:30 p.m.
That ARCA win at Pocono was one of six during the 2008 season for Allgaier on his way to winning the series championship.
He drove in the Xfinity (then Nationwide) Series from 2008 to 2013, then moved to the Cup Series full time from 2014 to 2015. In 2016, he returned to the Xfinity Series driving the No. 7 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports and has been there since. Thirteen of his 16 career wins in the series have come with the team.
This season started out rough for Allgaier with finishes of 26th or worse in the first three races.
Since then he has rebounded. He has wins at Atlanta and Darlington and has six top-five and eight top-10 finishes through 15 races. He ranks fifth in the point standings.
“I’m going to be perfectly honest with you, I was ready to throw in the towel about race No. 3,” Allgaier said. “It just seemed like nothing would go our way, everything was going wrong; we just didn’t have what we needed to have. Things weren’t going the way we wanted them to go.
“But that’s one of the things I love about this 7-team. I’ve been lucky enough to be with JR Motorsports now for a number of years and really with the 7 (team) guys. We have the same core group of guys as when I started there a number of years ago. One of the beauties of that is it allows us to dig our way out of the trenches if you will. When you’re having bad weeks or things aren’t going the way you want them to go, you’re able to dig down and nobody gets their feelings hurt. You get to work and try to do everything you can to make sure your program is where it needs to be at.”
In each of the past two races, Allgaier finished second to Cup Series regular Kyle Busch. He said it wasn’t losing to Busch that was frustrating, but rather the manner in which he lost.
“Coming down to the end of these races and being able to pass for the lead under green, then losing on a restart shortly thereafter,” Allgaier said. “That’s been disappointing, but that’s how this sport goes. The days you don’t go to Victory Lane make the ones you do go to Victory Lane that much sweeter. That’s why I’m excited for Pocono. I think we’ve got a great shot at it. It would be a great way to rebound after we got beat on those restarts the last two weeks in a row.”
Busch is not entered in today’s race. That’s good news for Allgaier, who is looking to gain as many bonus points as possible for the playoffs over the final seven races.
He starts second alongside pole sitter Harrison Burton.
“Those bonus points obviously help in the postseason,” Allgaier said. “But this series, 2021 has really unfolded as being a unique year as far as contenders and teams that are competitive. You look at the cars each and every week that are capable of going to Victory Lane and that list is pretty stacked. We’re going to have our work cut out for us.”
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