By Jerry Jordan, Editor
HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Justin Allgaier started the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway from 11th, had a flat tire, ran into the wall and still took home the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship.
“The first championship I really wanted,” Allgaier said. “I don’t want this to sound wrong, but I wanted it for myself. I spent all these years racing, and I didn’t really know if I’d ever get one. It was for myself. I think one’s a little bit different. Definitely less tears in this one, but not because it wasn’t any less emotional. I felt like this is for the men and women that not only won tonight that worked on the 7 car, but really throughout the course of my career. This one means as much just in a totally different way.”
Allgaier put together the best season of his career in 2026, winning six times – Phoenix, Darlington, Martinsville, Nashville, Pocono and Atlanta. He was the regular-season champion and had 13 stage wins. None of it counted, in his mind, without the last piece of the puzzle. “The Championship.”
“But I said there’s one thing missing on there that you didn’t cap off for the season, and that’s a championship. It’s not on there. I said we got to get the job done tonight. If we do that, I’ll consider this as a successful season,” Allgaier said.
“I can genuinely say that I loved every lap that we ran this year,” Allgaier said.
The job, on Saturday night, was arithmetic. Allgaier arrived with a 22-point lead and Jesse Love outscored him in both stages, eight points to four in the first and eight to seven in the second. He cut the margin to 18 and then 17. Allgaier scored 41 points on the night to finish at 2,477. Love scored 49 to finish at 2,463.
Brandon Jones won the race, his ninth career series win, beating Carson Kvapil by 3.937 seconds. It was big for Jones but as usually happens the victory was overshadowed by the champion.
The Flat and the Fence
The flat tire could have ended everything for Allgaier but he and the team rebounded. He tried to keep the car off the wall, the best he could, and rode the rim lane all the way around the track.
“I think I hit the fence on the white flag lap. I hit it fairly hard. I was, Why am I an idiot like this? At that point I will back this thing across the finish line if I have to to win this championship. I’m pretty proud of the fact we were able to pull it off,” Allgaier said.
“Tonight it was a battle. Idiot driver packed the fence down too many times. I told you before the race I wasn’t going to do that, and I did it anyways,” Allgaier said.
Team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. was on the radio trying to rein him in.
“I was pretty worried about it,” Earnhardt said. “We had the flat and got really lucky that that didn’t make our night much more challenging than it already did. I was on channel two, Justin couldn’t really hear me. I was hammering the spotter to dial him back.”
A Hall of Famer, Says the Boss
Earnhardt said a second title changes how Allgaier’s career reads, explaining that his driver probably feels like he should have already been a multi-title winner.
“It’s nice to kind of start to put some in the basket,” Earnhardt said. “It’s nice to get more than one, kind of certify the career he’s had, adds some credibility to it. He’s raced and raced and raced and gave us everything we’ve ever asked, been just the perfect of example of not only a great driver behind the wheel, but how he is with partners is really the standard. I mean, I don’t think he gets enough credit for just how good he is with all of our partners.
“I think Justin is a Hall of Famer in my mind because whether he truly ever gets that honor, I just feel like his work ethic and his attitude and personality, he’s a Hall of Fame guy. He kind of checks a lot of boxes. I’ll say this, man. We’re very fortunate as a team, and I think the series is fortunate that Justin made a home in the O’Reilly Series. I don’t want to imagine where JR Motorsports would be today without him.”
No driver has won three championships in the series. Earnhardt has a candidate in mind.
“That would be the most Justin Allgaier thing to do, to win three championships when no one has ever done it in the series before he retires,” Earnhardt said.
He Almost Walked Away
“When we talked in February, I already made up my mind. This was December of last year that I told JRM, Look, this is it, I’m not coming back,” Allgaier said. “I guess I’m sad I didn’t choose to stay retired at the end of this year because this would have been a heck of a way to go out. It’s got me fired up to come back next year and try to do it all over again.”