After his second win of the season at Michigan International Speedway on Aug. 17 and a seventh-place, 50-point day at Daytona International Speedway on Aug. 23, Justin Allgaier took a commanding 33-point lead over Cole Custer in the NASCAR Xfinity Series regular season point standings.
It’s the first time that Allgaier has led the regular season standings since 2018, and he leads all full-time Xfinity drivers in laps led (570), stage wins (13) and playoff points (23) this season.
It’s been another successful multi-win season for the long-time Xfinity veteran, but the year didn’t start out that way. Yes, Allgaier and the No. 7 team showed race-winning speed right out of the gate, but a flat tire (and subsequent crash) while leading at Phoenix Raceway and a last-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway were among the bad breaks that saw Allgaier record only four top 10s in the first 10 races.
“I think the beginning of the year was probably the hardest part for me,” Allgaier told Frontstretch prior to the Aug. 31 Darlington Xfinity race. “Because while we had speed, and we were doing all the right things … we just didn’t have the finishes to show for it. I mean, I think somebody said in the first 24 races, we had 17 races that had something happen, whether it was a penalty or crash or damage or not being there at the end of the race when we had such a fast race car. And I think that that’s been disappointing.”
A dominant win at Darlington in May was exactly what the doctor ordered for the team, and the pendulum has shifted ever since. Allgaier now has 11 top 10s in his last 13 starts (with crashes serving as the lone exceptions), and a 10th-place result at Darlington last Saturday marked his eighth consecutive top-10 finish.
Allgaier and the No. 7 team are back on track, and they’ve been firing on all cylinders since returning from the two-week Olympic break.
“The break for us after Indy [and] before Michigan was probably the best thing that had ever happened,” Allgaier said. “It let us recenter, get ourselves back to where we needed to be at and really put ourselves in good position for this playoff run.
“These last two races have just been phenomenal. I mean, to win in Michigan was great, but then to race like we did in Daytona — obviously at the end of the race, we only got back at seventh, but still, it was a solid, solid night for us. Like you said, we took the point lead by a pretty good margin.
“Now, with that, it can all go away just as equally as fast, just like it did [at Daytona] for Cole. So never are we going to be settled or comfortable, but pretty proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish over these last six weeks or so.”
With 15 playoff points on the line and three races to go before the playoffs, Allgaier enters this Saturday’s (Sept. 6) race at Atlanta Motor Speedway with a 28-point lead over Custer.
The week leading up to Darlington was a busy one for the series as a whole, as the official 2025 schedules were released by NASCAR on Aug. 29.
One of the new additions to next year’s Xfinity schedule is Allgaier’s home track of World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Ill. The series last raced at the track in 2010, and it’s a race that Allgaier has been longing to have back on the calendar.
“It’s huge, I love the racetrack at World Wide Technology Raceway,” Allgaier said. “I feel like it’s a cool place; it races well. We’ve seen some amazing races around with the Cup Series, but [also] for the Truck Series the last number of years. But then you watch the IndyCar race, you watch the silver crown race there, [and] it’s pretty awesome.
“Selfishly, being home, I really wanted that one back on the schedule, but I think it’s gotten back on the schedule because of the ability to race well and to do all the right things.”
The most ambitious addition to the schedule is Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, a road course that last saw Xfinity action 2008. It’s back for 2025, and it’ll mark the first Xfinity race held on foreign soil since 2012 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal — a race that Allgaier went on to win.
“Selfishly, I would have loved to have had Montreal back on the schedule, just because that was a really cool event and a lot of fun, and obviously I got to win there,” Allgaier said. “So that was really, really neat.”
Allgaier did not get to race at Mexico City in the 2000s, as his 2009 rookie season was the first year after the track’s (then) final race. The race will serve as a new challenge in the series’ diverse schedule, and it’s a race that he’s optimistic about.
“I don’t know what to expect, but I do know that we have such a great fan base, not only here in the United States, but internationally as well,” Allgaier said.
“We’ve seen it with other stick and ball sports playing in other countries. And obviously, as NASCAR, we’ve had some time in other countries that we’ve been able to go and run. So, I’m interested to see how it’s perceived, how good of an opportunity we have down there, but they had a lot of success down there in the past. I feel like if we can go down there and put on a good show and everything goes well, it should be a lot of fun.”
But with the additions of Mexico City, WWT Raceway, a second Bristol Motor Speedway date and the return of Rockingham Speedway for the first time since 2004, something had to give.
Michigan, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Richmond Raceway and a second date at Darlington were the unlucky four that received the ax for next year’s schedule, and all of them are tracks that Allgaier had recorded wins at in the past.
“At the point that [I won] at the tracks that are off the schedule, it’s ultra difficult, right?” Allgaier said. “I think for me, you go to these racetracks, and like I said, as a sport, we’re so kind of accustomed to where we go and what we see. We have friends and people and fans that we are accustomed to seeing at those racetracks. So that’s going to be difficult, but at the same time we’ll keep digging.
“I got to run an ARCA race [at Rockingham], so that’s really cool. Got some experience there. Looking forward to that one. Two Bristol [dates] is probably the biggest one that I’m excited about. But at the end of the day, to get something, you have to give something. And I think that unless we want to have 50 races on the schedule, this is kind of the inevitable side of it. We’ll manage it the best we can, but at the end of the day, we just want to make sure that the fans are getting the best product at the racetrack they can.”
In addition to the upcoming schedule changes, it’s also been a time of change for JR Motorsports. zMax CARS Tour champion Carson Kvapil has impressed with three top fives and six top-15 finishes in eight starts with JRM this season, while 18-year-old phenom Connor Zilisch will make his Xfinity and JRM debut at Watkins Glen International on Sept. 14 in preparation for a full-time season in JRM’s No. 88 car for 2025.
Both drivers have impressed on their way up the ladder, and Allgaier had nothing but praise for them.
“Carson has performed at a level that I don’t think anybody ever expected him to come in and to just jump in and go,” Allgaier said. “Very first race, he was right up to speed.
“… His work ethic is really, really good, and [he’s] somebody that I think has a long longevity in this sport, if he can keep that same work ethic. Obviously [he’s] ultra, ultra talented. He’s proven that in late models. He’s obviously proven it in his limited starts in the Xfinity series, so I’m excited to see what the future looks like for him.
“Connor is arguably the most talked about young driver coming up. What he’s been able to accomplish on all the racing that he’s done is really impressive. I think he’s won four out of five ARCA races, and [he’s] got the Daytona 24 Hours and the Sebring 12 hours. Heck, anything he jumps in, he seems like he’s up at the front. So I’ll be interested to see him get behind the wheel, and obviously getting full-time next year, I’m excited to see what that looks like.”
As for Allgaier himself, he signed a one-year deal with JRM after winning at Bristol last September. While nothing has been finalized yet, he said the expectation is to return for another year.
“I mean, the expectation is to be back,” Allgaier said. “We’re working through everything right now. Obviously, there’s a lot of pieces of the puzzle that that have to be put in place to make sure that everything goes in the right direction, but that is the plan as of this moment, and we’re working through that.”
For now, Allgaier, crew chief Jim Pohlman and the entire No. 7 team will be razor-focused on their upcoming run for the Xfinity championship.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Can find on Twitter @stephen_stumpf.