After 14 seasons, 471 races, 25 wins, and 7 championship-4 appearances, Justin Allgaier has his first Xfinity Championship in 2024. Often referred to as the Denny Hamlin of the Xfinity Series, Allgaier finally broke the championship dry spell. And this is surprising because out of the #7’s recent season, the 2024 one was turning out to be one of his worst.

Like his average finish, this season has been 13.45, which is his lowest since 2009 when it was 13.9. And the veteran even had previously spoken about this before the Las Vegas playoff race and he found it funny, back then, how bad his season has been. But look what it got him? Ironic right? Well, it seems like Dale Jr. jinxing his driver’s season did not work out after all. And now that it’s all over on a high note, Allgaier can look back and have a good long laugh.

Justin Allgaier wins the championship in a season which is not his best!

Allgaier in the 33 races this season, only won twice and only had 10 top 5s which is his lowest since 2017, he’s even gotten 6 DNFs this year. In fact, in the first part of the playoffs, Allgaier seemed distanced from the championship. He ended his regular season with a DNF in the Bristol race and even started the playoffs with another DNF in the Kansas race. That was followed by a P25 finish in the next race in Talladega. Allgaier made a comeback in ROVAL with a P7. This is when the JRM driver bounced back into championship contention.

Post ROVAL was the Las Vegas weekend where Justin Allgaier dwelled on how his season had been. He joked about how Dale Jr’s high expectations of him might have jinxed it. He said, “You know it’s funny, like I look at the DNFs and the crashes. We have races that we finished, I mean we finished Bristol but it wasn’t pretty. I mean the thing was killed had to laugh though cause Dale Jr said in the media center that it was my best opportunity ever and all these things. And I was like, I think you jinxed it, man.”

It was also in the same interview that Allgaier had dwelled on how great it would be to win a championship coming out of this messy season. The JRM driver said, “We got new life, we put ourselves in this spot. And you don’t ever know the peaks without having valleys. And sometimes if everything is just flat and smooth, you don’t enjoy those big moments. You also have to get down in those deep valleys and dig through it and I think that’s where we at. If we were to come out of this with a championship it would be amazing but at the same time this year has proven that you can want it, you can work harder, you can do all the things you want to do to be better and if it ain’t gods plan it ain’t gonna happen and sometimes you just got to accept that and figure out what that plan is.”

And the #7 team did just that! In the Las Vegas race, Allgaier got a P3, followed by a top-10 in all the races up until the championship one in Phoenix where he finished in P2 and bagged the championship. Now the veteran can look back at his season and have a good laugh at it! Even how the Phoenix race started and then how it ended for Allgaier is unbelievable. After crashing in practice, he started in P37. By the end of it, he wrapped up the title with a solid P2 finish. That’s pretty much been the story for him this whole season – pulling out surprises.

Even in the post-race press conference, he spoke about how even he himself cannot explain how the turmoil of his 2024 season turned out to him winning the title.

Allgaier cannot explain what got him the championship

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After the Phoenix race, in an interview, a journalist asked him about his Vegas race comments and if he could comprehend how his season and the current race have been. To this, he answered, “The short answer is no. Jim (Pohlman, Allgaier’s crew chief) gave a speech at the Roval, I guess it was, that pressure makes diamonds. We had the little diamond figurine that we brought along and all these things. I think it goes without saying that the sport is tough, but I also don’t think you realize how impactful those little moments are.”

Allgaier credited his team for the championship, even though he wasn’t in top form, his team was always on the peak putting the fastest race cars on the track. And according to #7, this probably made up for bad days on track, like the Phoenix one, “I’ve been blessed to drive amazing race cars for the last number of years and have a threat at a championship and an opportunity to do this. Even on days like today or this weekend where it didn’t go well, we crashed in practice and then you’re starting in the back and then you have the tire go down and then you make the penalties, it’s like one thing after another,” he added.

Yet the veteran can’t explain how it worked out other than calling it god’s plan, Allgaier said, “And I really truly believe that God works in mysterious ways, but tonight is one of those ways that I will never understand or comprehend how it worked out or why it worked out or how we got here. But we’re here, and I’m not going to be sad about it.”

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