By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
One of the year’s quickest cars in the XFINITY Series will not be running for the championship one week from now at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
That car was Justin Allgaier, the five-time race winner in 2018 who was knocked from the Championship 4 in Saturday’s Whelen Trusted to Perform 200 from ISM Raceway.
After the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet jumped to the race lead on lap 21, he held the lead for 69 laps on the day and scored the win in both stages.
The speed, however, was kicked back a few yards when John Hunter Nemechek was turned into Allgaier, damaging the right-front corner of his No. 7. The day and his championship chances were now in question.
“All things considered, it was going to be a great day,” Allgaier said. “Ultimately at the end, getting caught up in that little crash, losing brakes… at that point, it was survival.”
Following the contact, Allgaier would later suffer from brake issues that burst his right-front wheel assembly into flames while competing on track. He continued on to finish 24th.
“Once we were behind, I knew it would be a struggle,” he said. “It was just about managing the rest of the race.
“I don’t know what caused it. It hit in a weird spot. I didn’t realize how bad it was until the pedal went to the floor. At that point, it was about not wrecking anybody and to survive.”
With Christopher Bell winning, the Final 4 was set with Daniel Hemric, Cole Custer, Bell and Allgaier’s JRM teammate Tyler Reddick. Though Allgaier was a title favorite most of the season, he will not end the season with the mega-crown.
“At the end of the day, we did everything right this year,” he said. “We had a great season. Today, we did everything right at the beginning part of the race and that was the most frustrating part. We led a lot of laps, won both stages.
“[The playoffs] bit me, but to our own accord.”
Still, the veteran will cap off a career year next week. 2018 saw Allgaier win five times and a career-high top fives and laps led. Positives are seen, however, it doesn’t make the loss any easier.
“I feel so bad for my guys,” he said. “These guys on the No. 7 team, everybody at JR Motorsports has done a great job all year. We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time and we didn’t execute like we needed to.
“We still won five races this year. My goal is to make it six.”