Following traditions, the Xfinity Series preceded the Cup Series at the Texas Motor Speedway over the weekend. In a race that decided the round of 8 entrants, John Hunter Nemechek grabbed the win and booked his slot. While JR Motorsports’ star driver Justin Allgaier had already got his pass through the stage with the Bristol win, his dominating performance, unfortunately, crumbled down to a P5 finish. Coincidentally, it was a teammate of Justin Haley, a recent guest on Dale Earnhardt Jr’s podcast, who’d started off the string of misfortunes for the driver.

JR Motorsports’s No.7 driver has been showing strong dominance throughout the season. His race at Texas did not carry much weight considering that he’d bagged his ticket to the round of 8, but regardless of that, it was clear that Justin Allgaier had wanted to see the victory lane at the track. The race proved to be a roller coaster of emotions for him.

Justin Haley’s teammate expresses regret over contact with Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s driver

While Allgaier won the first two stages and looked poised to take the win, handling issues on his car and a couple of consequent cautions dropped him down the standing strongly. He was left to battle the likes of Parker Kligerman with old tires and faced failure in that. Though he eventually managed to secure a top 5 finish, Kaulig Racing’s Chandler Smith got the better of him at P4.

As fate would have it, it was Chandler Smith who’d first got in contact with the No. 7 car halfway through the race and had it go loose on the track.

Expressing his regret over the incident, Chandler spoke to Frontstretch.com, and said, “Yeah just had the No. 18 [Sammy Smith] push me really aggressively. Pushing No. 7, shoved him off in there further than I liked. Been throttled up, because I felt like I was getting air-packed on my left rear and I wanted to kind of get out of that vulnerable position. And I ended up packing air on the No. 7 which I didn’t mean to do by any means so I hate it for him.”

With a member from the Kaulig Racing outfit almost sending his driver out of the contest in Texas, it was just days before that Dale Jr had uncovered a truth involving the team’s young Cup Series star Justin Haley.

Watch This Story: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Reveals the Immediate Regret After Entering Bristol

Dale Jr’s moment of truth with Kaulig Racing’s “Diamond in the Rough”

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In a recent episode of the ‘Dale Jr. Download’ podcast, Dale and his co-host Mike Davis got into a long conversation with 24-year-old Justin Haley about his surprising mid-season announcement to shift garages. Touching upon the topic of his team’s involvement in nurturing him through the ranks of NASCAR, Junior said, “You’ve got a great home y’all. You’re loved and appreciated at Kaulig as one of their first sort of Diamonds in the Rough, right? Their first project that they’ve sort of cultivated into a cup driver.”

Trying to understand the reasoning behind his move, Dale questioned the manner in which the announcement of his departure was made. Justin Haley had revealed his departure to his current team owner, Matt Kaulig, at the exact same moment his new team, Rick Ware Racing, was announcing him to the world. Explaining to Dale Jr that he had not meant for that to happen, Justin said, “So Matt [Kaulig] and Chris [Rice] had no idea. I called them right before the announcement. They didn’t answer, unfortunately. And we had to announce, so I called him at 11:30, right before, and then we had to announce. And the announcement was already out, and I called Matt and he understood, called Chris and he understood too”

Despite Justin Haley’s departure, Kaulig Racing will not be left without defense in 2024. As Dale Jr. had mentioned, the team is known for bringing up youngsters through the ranks, and with the likes of Chandler Smith in its cars, Matt Kaulig will not be worrying much. As for Dale Jr.’s No. 7 driver Justin Allgaier, a chance for redemption will pop up at the Charlotte Roval.

Read More: Despite Discovering the ‘Diamond in the Rough’ Matt Kaulig Was Shockingly Blindsided by His Protege