A well-known veteran of the NASCAR scene, Justin Allgaier bestowed the ultimate gift to his fans. They will be able to see more of him in 2025, as he has signed a new contract with the Dale Earnhardt Jr-owned JR Motorsports. Despite the positive contract renewal boost, at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, he could only muster 8th fastest, while Austin Hill won his way into the playoffs. The 2-time Xfinity runner-up is relatively safe from elimination, as he is the points leader.

Now the big question is whether he can get rid of the short-track jinx. Knowing how crucial winning is to reaching the Championship 4, does his recent short-track form give any cause for concern? Surprisingly, Allgaier was insistent that his lack of a short-track win in 2024 was down to circumstances beyond his control.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s veteran is not worried about his short-track issues

Following the Xfinity race at Homestead-Miami, all eyes will turn to the next race at Martinsville. Although he is the points leader, Justin Allgaier would dearly love to win his way in. What does work in his favor is that the Martinsville Speedway is a track where he has won before. In the last 4 years of racing at Martinsville, Allgaier finished inside the top 10 on seven out of the 8 visits to the track. However, his short-track prowess has not been particularly kind to him in 2024.

Justin Allgaier said after the race, “It doesn’t, because everything at Bristol was kind of out of control. So I would look at that as we had speed, we were the lead car. We were doing all the right things. Ran good at Martinsville in the spring, won this same race last fall. I’m comfortable. At the end of the day you were always going to have heartburn going into Martinsville, unless you’re a winner and you’re in. It wouldn’t surprise me if somebody gets wrecked on lap 1. That’s just the way Martinsville goes sometimes. I hope it’s not me, I’m putting that in the universe that it’s not going to be me.”

In a way, he is speaking the truth because he was 5th during the spring Martinsville race. However, at the Bristol Motor Speedway, he wrecked out, which dampened his title hopes, especially considering that the Bristol race played host to the regular season finale. On the bright side, Justin Allgaier picked up two wins to seal his playoff berth. Additionally, as he mentioned before, he did win the Martinsville Playoff race last year. It also helps that in eight Martinsville Xfinity starts, he has finished in the Top 10 on seven occasions. If we only consider the fall races at Martinsville, Allgaier has never finished lower than fifth.

Allgaier’s race at Martinsville comes just a little while after JR Motorsports handed him a new contract. As per the new deal, Justin Allgaier stays on in the sport until 2026, with BRANDT as the main sponsor. Considering the lengthy career Allgaier has had in the sport, the driver had some words on his journey in stock-racing so far.

Justin Allgaier reflected on his long career in the Xfinity Series

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At the age of 38, Justin Allgaier has been competing at the Xfinity level since 2008. Over the course of his career, he is yet to win a title but did finish as the runner-up on two occasions. Both times, he piloted the #7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, a car and team that he competed for since 2016. Dale Earnhardt Jr took him under his wing, and the two have not looked back, ever since.

He continued, “I’ve been blessed to do this for a long time. In that long time my gray hair has come from knowing that the only thing certain is uncertainty. We’re going to Martinsville, we’ll have some fun and see what happens. So far, so good this week. You know, it’s hard when we’ve known for a couple of weeks now, that this contract extension was done. It’s good to get out of here, good to talk about it and we just have to do our job. I think that’s the hardest part. We get caught up sometimes in the week to week, how do we do this well, do it right. If we do our job the way we know how to, we have a really solid race team. We’re able to go up there, go for wins and execute. We did all this today, just didn’t win the race”

Of course, given his age, one has to wonder how long he can still race at the highest level in the Xfinity Series. Earlier this weekend, Justin Allgaier confessed that when he reached 40, he was probably going to start questioning his career. However, this new contract extension will take him to two more years with the JR Motorsports squad.