FORT WORTH, Texas – Justin Allgaier and Kyle Larson put on quite the Texas two-step for the fans at the end of the Andy’s Frozen Custard 340 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday (May 2).
When the field took the green flag with 22 laps to go, Larson shot out of a figurative cannon ahead of the rest of the field. After five laps, Allgaier started to close in, consistently. One tenth on one lap, then two tenths on the next lap, until he got to within striking distance of his one-time teammate.
When he got there?
“He was able to block all the lanes I needed,” Allgaier said.
“I got to his outside, and he kind of ran me up over the top, right? I didn’t know what to do at that point, right? I mean, without contact, I don’t know how you get by him, and you know, listen, I’ve done this a long time, and contact’s great, but it just as easily puts the guy behind you in the catbird’s seat, and we needed a JR Motorsports win today regardless if it was him or me, and I think we did what we needed to do.”
It became a moment of calculated risk, and it is hard to blame Allgaier for not getting more physical when it could’ve easily jeopardized both of their days. Long known for his respect amongst the garage, he added another notch to his already massive ledger of being the professional, elder statesman in NASCAR’s second division.
“I actually lifted one time,” Allgaier said.
“Because I was gonna be inside getting in at 3, and I just knew that that wasn’t gonna end well for either one of us, right?”
Larson kept this risk into account when fighting Allgaier for the win.
“I didn’t think that he would ever move me out of the way,” Larson said.
“I’m like, ‘OK, his next move is just gonna be to pack air on me, so I was kind of bracing for that and just trying to give myself room lower to allow me to chase it up the racetrack. I think he was trying to pack air, which is what you need to do, and for how much entry speed he was able to carry, I was surprised that he didn’t get to that point to be able to take the air off me.”
At the end of the day, it was two drivers both exceptionally skilled at what they do, each knowing how the other would attack and defend. It was pure racing and pure gold for all who watched it.
“He never touched me, which I was thankful for,” Larson said.
“It was just a good, hard race to the finish.”
Kevin Nix has been with Frontstretch since February 2023. Hailing from Gilbert, Arizona, his dream is to be in the NASCAR media sphere full-time. He is a video assistant, working on the back end to streamline video and audio quality of all at-track interviews. Nix also writes about news every Monday for the site.
Nix graduated with a Master's Degree in Sports Journalism from ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix, Arizona. He also has bachelor's degrees in Communications and Political Science. In his downtime, he likes to read, play video games and take walks in the Arizona weather - when it's not too hot.
Justin is just a good guy great racer. No way he was going to move Kyle.
Had the roles been reversed , Larson would not had been so nice.