It’s a blessing and a curse for JR Motorsports to be essentially in a league of its own when it comes to the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
Beyond winning seven of the first 11 races this year, no team can tout the consistency that the four and sometimes five-car squad can produce at each and every track. The only time this season the team failed to have a car in the top five was at EchoPark Speedway back in February. The last time it didn’t come away with a top-10 finish was in the spring of 2024 at Talladega Superspeedway.
That’s the blessing of having so many cars at the front. The curse nearly reared its head this past weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. While Kyle Larson took the No. 88 Chevy to victory lane by beating out teammate Justin Allgaier, how they got there wasn’t always a pretty picture.
First, during a caution-filled first stage, the two made contact coming to a lap 25 restart. Post race, Larson said Allgaier had kept the top lane cars pinned up in the marbles under pace laps, leading to him and the inside lane getting better restarts. Larson wasn’t having it, eventually running Allgaier all the way down to the bottom and questioning the tactic post-race.
“Anybody else who was restarting the leader wasn’t doing that,” Larson said. “I just don’t think it’s that necessary. I’ve always been the type in all my racing, even sprint cars, just start the race. Don’t crowd people into the grease, don’t crowd people into the marbles, just start the race.”
Allgaier found himself behind Larson on a restart with 17 laps to go and received a message from his crew chief, Andrew Overstreet.
“Remember, nothing stops a hungry gator, not even the so-called greatest of all time,” Overstreet said. “I know you can beat him, you’ve beat him before.”
By both drivers’ admissions, Allgaier was the faster of the two in the closing laps, but Larson blocked off lanes he needed on his way to his second win in O’Reilly this season. Allgaier said afterwards that there was plenty he could do to get by Larson, but not necessarily proper or without contact to his teammate for the day.
“Without contact, I don’t know how you get by him,” Allgaier said. “I’ve done this a long time and contact is great, but it just as easily opens things up for the guy behind you. We needed a JR Motorsports win today regardless of if it was him or me, and I think we did what we needed to do.”
It’s by no means new for teammates to have run-ins in pursuit of success, but there’s a variable partly of JR Motorsports’ making that brought the tension to Saturday’s race. Between Larson, a full-time Cup Series driver, and Allgaier, the O’Reilly Series points leader, are two entirely different agendas. Larson, as he talked about last season following a dominant win at Bristol Motor Speedway, is there with the almost sole intention of not just winning but embarrassing the field and was in his second of just two 2026 starts with JRM.
Allgaier, a member of JRM for over a decade, has to prioritize his long standing with the team and his own points battle — albeit one with a healthy amount of distance between himself and second place Sheldon Creed.
“Larson gets in our car and he’s there to win,” owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Tuesday on the Dale Jr. Download. “He’s only going to run a handful of races and he ain’t about nothing but winning that race. He ain’t there to be a good teammate. He ain’t there to do nothing but win. So if he and Justin are duking it out, I’m like ‘Larson, come on man, Justin’s running for a championship. Justin, come on, be smart here, don’t take any chances.’”
And the dynamic doesn’t end with Larson or the plethora of Hendrick Motorsports drivers taking over the No. 88. With Rajah Caruth back in the No. 88 this weekend, the teammates will still be on different agendas with Caruth now three spots and 14 points out of the final spot in the Chase.
For all we know, the same situation could come up for Carson Kvapil, who will drive for DGM Racing at Watkins Glen International while two road course aces — Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch — take his usual ride (or rides) with JRM. Does it give the team a better chance of winning the race and improving its bottom line? Absolutely. But what damage could it do long-term to driver’s campaigns or partnerships with the likes of Hendrick if one party doesn’t get what they’re looking for out of it?
In total, four more regular season races will see Alex Bowman, William Byron or Chase Elliott behind the wheel of the No. 88, already plenty fast on its own without a Cup regular behind the wheel. For those races, Allgaier, Caruth and the team will have to learn how to compete with and manage alongside drivers who may come in with the devil-may-care attitude of Larson.
James Krause joined Frontstretch in March 2024 as a contributor. Krause was born and raised in Illinois and graduated from Northern Illinois University. He currently works in Fort Wayne, Indiana covering minor league, college and high school sports. Outside of racing, Krause loves to keep up with football, music, anime and video games.
I don’t understand they way they keep moving Carson Kvapil. One week he is in the #1 then the #9, then back to the #1. I could understand subbing in a Cup guy for a road course maybe, but moving him to another car for the week makes no sense. Put the Cup guy in the part time car. Leave the kid with one Crew Chief.
One word: Sponsorship.
I’ve really become an Allgaier fan over the years. What an amazing professional, in an era where so many across all walks of life seems to think the only viable path is to act like a child.
What happened Saturday will continue to be a problem until if/when NASCAR bans Cup drivers from running in O’Reilly/truck races. In the short term, I get why they won’t, as Cup drivers bring eyeballs to the other series. But, I do wonder if O’Reilly could become huge on its own, given time to develop an identity without the “Buschwhackers”.
Elsewhere in the sports world, where top series participants cannot enter lower series events doesn’t really provide a clear picture. F2 is popular in its own right as the feeder series to F1. College football is massively popular in feeding the NFL. College/international basketball is popular while feeding the NBA. But Indy Nxt generates little interest, as does college/AAA baseball.
I felt Larson was slightly over the line in forcing Allgaier to move down on the one restart. The leader should have say on the line coming to green, barring putting someone in the wall or grass. But, I get it. Cup drivers are brought to O’Reilly to create excitement and win, and it’s only natural they’ll use their advantage of not having to worry about payback. So long as Cup drivers dip into lower series, I don’t see any way to fix this.
Allgaier has always been a class act.