A car caught fire at the pit box and so did a pit crew member. Meanwhile, a tire changer slipped and fell, which resulted in a knee injury. Still, none of them gave up and did their jobs diligently. Needless to say, each NASCAR race is a fruit of collective efforts by a team. Things weren’t any different for JR Motorsports star Justin Allgaier. The #7 team did everything they could to get Allgaier to the victory lane, but alas, they fell short of achieving it.

Naturally, Allgaier couldn’t help but express his disappointment with a third-place finish behind Cole Custer and Sheldon Creed. Although his words revealed how proud and happy he was of the efforts of his team, with one look on his face, anyone could say that he was going through an array of mixed feelings.

Justin Allgaier lacked confidence even before the 2024 season kicked off

What makes a real champion is the mentality to keep trying and never giving up. But when a Skewcar reporter walked up to a worked-up Allgaier, the 37-year-old athlete shrugged his shoulders, not dead sure if he’d be able to make it next year. But, still he didn’t lose hope.

“I don’t know if I’ll get another shot at it next year, at least we’ll have a shot out of it but I don’t know if we’ll make it but, so proud of the effort of this team,” said Allgaier, “I can’t give anymore than I gave right there. That was all I had, and we just came up short,” he added.

Despite acknowledging that his car was not as fast as Stewart-Haas Racing driver Cole Custer’s #00 machine, he assured that he would come back stronger next year. “We weren’t quite (as fast as the double zero) there,” said Allgaier, “We’ll be back, we got 2-3 months till Daytona and we’ll come back stronger and go try to get to victory lane again. But again, proud of our team, to have all our partners this year, to have the season that we had, to finish third in the race, second in points…I can’t be more thankful.”

With the changes made this year in his team, specifically, Jim Pohlman joining JR Motorsports as Allgaier’s crew chief, Allgaier felt like he had never worked for a better team in his entire career.“It was a big ask of us to do what we did in the offseason and to switch everything around. I couldn’t be more proud of Jim Pohlman and the team that he has assembled here,” he added.

All things considered, it’s safe to say Justin Allgaier still needs to analyze where he went wrong in the closing laps of the race. As of now, Allgaier feels like he got too free around the corners, which ultimately brought his throttle down on the straightaways.

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Allgaier revealed why he failed to make speed

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Justin Allgaier shuffled between the last two spots in the top 10 before gearing up to the front row during the last stage of the 202-lap-long race. The finish was particularly thrilling, with Cole Custer, Justin Allgaier, and John Hunter Nemechek battling for the lead.

The three speedsters went three wide on lap 201, with Allgaier’s Chevy closing in between Nemechek and Custer. But Custer held off both of them, as he veered to the inside and darted forth, never to look back again.

Allgaier found himself in a tight spot on the second lap when he tried to go low, and in the process, nudged Joe Gibbs Racing sensation John Hunter Nemechek, before spinning out and falling back to the 36th. Although he managed to move all the way into the top 3 after a four-tire change during the pit stop following the first stage, he said, “I’m going to replay this one back in my head a couple of times. I drove in there pretty deep and just kind of washed up and the double zero had the turning car all night and we were a little bit too free.”

“Restart was fantastic, we did everything right. The 20 (Nemechek) kind of missed the bottom and drove all the way up and honestly, I was afraid I was gonna run back of him when I tried to turn back down the hill, it just was enough to let the double zero (Cole Custer) get back to my inside and ultimately getting down into turn 3,” he added.

But after a top-3 finish in the coveted Championship 4 race and a second place in the points standings, is Allgaier sad about not winning the Championship? Sure! But is he sad about their overall season? Not really. Allgaier said, “I’m a lot happier this year with the effort and I’m not as sad leaving tonight. Like I said, last year I left here gutted, heartbroken, just miserable. I’m gonna walk out of here. I’m gonna hold my head up high knowing that we gave it all we had.”

Justin Allgaier will get to rest on Sunday before he goes back to work to prepare for the next season. The JR Motorsports star felt like just the fact that he has made it into the Championship 4 six times, says a lot about his abilities.

“The sun’s gonna come up in the morning and Monday we are gonna go back to work… You got to keep putting yourself in this position to go for a championship and we’ve done that and we’ll try again next year,” he said.

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