An at-peace Allgaier says 2026 is about ‘fun’

Justin Allgaier began a new NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season dealing with change around his JR Motorsports team, particularly at the crew chief level, yet he’s unfazed by it all.

“It’s just been different,” said Allgaier of who he is in 2026. “I think I’m at a point in my career where, not that I’ve accomplished everything you could accomplish, but I’ve exceeded my own expectations so many times that I think I’m just in a place where I’m enjoying it more. In Daytona, walking out on the stage and doing driver intros for the Daytona 500 (pictured above) was kind of this surreal moment of, ‘I don’t know if I’ll ever get to do this again. But man, it’s cool.’

“I don’t want to take it for granted. You have to enjoy it while it’s happening, and I feel like we did that well. I think 2026 is a year of fun. I had fun last year, but I think this year, I’m just enjoying the moment a lot more than I ever have and finding the positives in everything and really feel like we can go out there and use that for good ammunition on the racetrack.”

Allgaier finally captured what had been an elusive series championship in 2024. In the last three seasons, he has won nine races and finished no worse than third in the point standings.

The 39-year-old has made a home in the second-tier series with the team co-owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt Miller. In the process, he’s become one of the most popular drivers, and one that many found themselves rooting for to triumph in the championship. To date, he has made over 500 starts in the series with 28 career wins.

A broader look at Allgaier’s numbers in the series reveals an even more impressive career.

Allgaier ran full-time from 2009 through 2013 with Team Penske and then Steve Turner, winning three races and finishing no worse than sixth in the standings. The second part of his career began in 2016 with JR Motorsports, and since then, Allgaier has won 25 races and finished no worse than seventh in the championship standings.

In other words, in 15 seasons in the series, Allgaier’s worst result was seventh in points. He’s won 28 races in 506 starts with 303 top-10 finishes.

“It’s going to sound really bad,” Allgaier admitted. “I don’t know that it ever mattered to me because I never really – if it wasn’t a 'one' in front of it, it didn’t really matter to me because second to me was no different than 10th or 15th or 20th. Look, I’m beyond blessed to be in the situation that I’m in, right? Multiple different formats in those top sevens throughout the years."

But whereas Allgaier has made a great NASCAR career for himself, it hasn’t come at the top level of the sport. Allgaier is fine with that. He went there and tried for two seasons, 2014 and 2015, and looks back now with the honesty that he didn’t enjoy those years.

“People tell you the stove is hot,” Allgaier said. “Sometimes you go touch it, and you’re like, ‘Yeah, it’s really hot, and I don’t want to do that again.’ Now some people go back and they touch it again later just to make sure that they got the right experience the first time.

“For me, I got burned so bad that I was just like, I could care less to ever go back over there.”

Still, if there had been a really good opportunity then Allgaier would have entertained it. But things have worked out where he has a good thing going for him in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and when he does get asked to run Cup Series races, either as a substitute driver for Hendrick Motorsports or attempting the Daytona 500 with JR Motorsports, it’s in a good car.

“My phone doesn’t ring,” Allgaier said, “when there is an opportunity to go Cup racing.”

CLICK HERE to listen to the full conversation with Allgaier, or look for The Racing Writer’s Podcast on any major podcast platform.