Justin Allgaier

Early career

Allgaier was born in Riverton, Illinois, and began his racing career at the age of five in quarter midgets, winning over one hundred races and five championships. He began stock car racing at thirteen in the UMP Late Model Series, where he competed for three seasons. At the age of sixteen, he made his debut in the ARCA RE/MAX Series at the Illinois State Fairgrounds Racetrack, driving the No. 99 Hoosier Tire Midwest/Law Automotive Chevrolet for Ken Schrader; he qualified twenty-ninth and finished seventeenth. He ran two additional races for Kerry Scherer and Bob Schacht, with a best finish of eleventh.

2003–2006

Allgaier ran additional ARCA races in 2003, making six starts in the No. 86 owned by his father. He had a sixth-place finish in his second start at Toledo Speedway, and later a best finish of third at Salem Speedway. The next season, he made only five starts but had a second-place at Toledo. In addition, he was a representative of the United States in the South Pacific Saloon Car Championship, where had two top-fives. In 2005, Allgaier ran seven races in ARCA, splitting time between cars owned by Wayne Hixson and Bobby Gerhart. He won his first career pole at Springfield, setting a new track record, and had four top-five finishes. He also made his NASCAR debut in the Craftsman Truck Series, making four starts in the No. 63 MB Motorsports/Dave Porter Ford. He failed to make five races and did not finish higher than 26th. That year, he appeared on the Discovery Channel program, Driver X: The Race For The Ride. The show's premise was Jack Roush searching for new talent to drive Roush Racing-prepared vehicles in NASCAR's top 3 series.

In 2006, Allgaier made his first full-time run in ARCA, ending 10th. He got his first career win at the Illinois State Fairgrounds Racetrack, becoming the first Springfield area resident to win in the 72-year history of championship auto racing at the fairgrounds. He made three more Truck races for MB and had a twenty-first-place finish at Kansas Speedway. In 2007, he won his second career ARCA race at Salem and finished fourth in points. He also won two features in a midget car at Angell Park Speedway and placed 3rd in the Chili Bowl behind Tony Stewart and J. J. Yeley.

2008–2013

Allgaier returned for another full season in ARCA in 2008, driving for his family once again. He won six races, including the final three, and won the series championship by a slim margin. He broke Frank Kimmel's eight-year streak of winning the championship in that series. He also returned to NASCAR, finishing 21st in a Truck race at Kentucky Speedway. Later that year, Allgaier signed a contract with Roger Penske's No. 12 Nationwide team to run four races in the final part of the year. His best finish in the Penske Truck Rental Dodge was eleventh at Phoenix.

Allgaier was then signed to drive the car full-time in 2009. Because of the acquisition of Penske Racing sponsor Alltel by Cellco Partners, a joint venture of Verizon and Vodafone, their Sprint Cup sponsorship was legislated out of the sport by NASCAR's agreement with Sprint in that series to prohibit sponsorship by other wireless telephone companies. This allowed Verizon to move their sponsorship to the Nationwide Series, where it is not prohibited, and Allgaier raced a full season with Verizon sponsorship for what became known as Penske Championship Racing. (The name change was made when Bill Davis became a minority owner of the team.) Allgaier won his first career pole in NASCAR at Memphis Motorsports Park.

During the 2009 NAPA 200 in Montreal, Allgaier had the fastest car early in the race & while running 6th, tried to make a pass on Canadian road ace Ron Fellows and Kyle Busch. Instead he caused a wreck that took both him and Fellows out of the race and damaged Busch's hopes of winning. After this humiliating incident, Allgaier took some lessons at Fellows' road racing driving school to better his road course skills.

He won his first Nationwide Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway on March 20, 2010.

Allgaier was rumored to drive the Sprint Cup Series No. 12 Penske Racing Dodge in 2011; however, instead Allgaier moved to Turner Motorsports for 2011, driving the No. 31 Chevrolet Impala full-time in the Nationwide Series for 2011. In the inaugural STP 300 at Chicagoland Speedway after passing Carl Edwards who ran out of fuel on the last lap, Allgaier won the race. Even though Allgaier ran out of fuel himself after, he was able to cross the finish line before third place Trevor Bayne to finish first. He almost won at Road America but ran out of fuel on the caution on the final lap and finished 19th.

In 2012 Allgaier returned to the renamed Turner Scott Motorsports; he passed Jacques Villeneuve on the final lap to win the NAPA Auto Parts 200 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.

In August 2013, it was announced that Allgaier would make his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut the following month at Chicagoland Speedway, driving there and in two other races in Phoenix Racing's No. 51 Chevrolet, newly purchased by Turner Scott co-owner Harry Scott Jr. Allgaier finished 27th in his debut, and ran races for the team later in the year at Kansas Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway and Phoenix International Raceway.

2014

In January 2014 it was announced that Allgaier would compete full-time for Rookie of the Year in the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, driving for the now-renamed HScott Motorsports in the No. 51 Chevrolet SS.

Allgaier led 4 laps in the 2014 Daytona 500 and crashed with 7 laps to go. He finished 27th. After consecutive top 20 finishes, Allgaier had a great finish in the Food City 500 avoiding several wrecks to finish 17th. At Talladega, Allgaier nearly won his first Cup series victory in the Aaron's 499, running in the top five and contending victory with 9 laps to go. He lost drafting help from Kurt Busch and as a result, lost multiple spots, finishing 27th.

Allgaier lead 15 laps during the first Pocono race in early June. Taking the lead with less than 35 laps to go, Allgaier led until a yellow came out with 19 laps to go; forcing Allgaier to make a pit stop.

At Daytona in the Coke Zero 400, Allgaier ran in the top ten early in the race. He unfortunately was caught up in "The Big One" that took out over 27 cars. Allgaier, while trying to avoid wrecking, tapped Kyle Busch, who was already wrecking. Allgaier's contact caused Busch to come back onto the apron and be t-boned by Cole Whitt.

Allgaier missed the field for the 2014 GEICO 500, failing to qualify for the first time in his Cup career. The new restrictor-plate qualifying process became controversial amongst drivers and fans because many drivers complained that they barely managed to make the show because of the system.

Allgaier made a comeback the next week at Martinsville, taking the lead late in the race, leading 4 laps and then finishing 17th. Allgaier finished 29th in the Cup Series standings for 2014 and 3rd in the Rookie of the Year standings behind Austin Dillon and Kyle Larson.

2015

Allgaier began his season with a crash in the Daytona 500. He rebounded at Phoenix three weeks later, running in the top ten late. After contact with Tony Stewart, Allgaier faded in the waning laps finishing 18th. The next week at Auto Club Speedway, Allgaier ran as high as 8th and finished 12th-his career best finish at the time. He scored his first top ten at Bristol in the No. 51, finishing 8th. He then finished 18th at Richmond after spending most of the race running as high as second, and while suffering from a stomach cramp. Allgaier had some good runs at short tracks such as the second Bristol race, and both Martinsville races but failed to record another top ten.

On October 2, it was announced that Allgaier parted ways with HScott Motorsports, and was replaced in 2016 by Clint Bowyer. On October 28, it was announced that Allgaier would take his sponsor Brandt to drive the No. 7 for JR Motorsports full-time in the Xfinity Series season in 2016, replacing Regan Smith.

Allgaier finished 30th in the Cup Series standings, one spot short of matching his career-best season result.

2016: Return to Xfinity Series

In 2016, Allgaier returned to the NASCAR Xfinity Series to drive the No. 7 Brandt sponsored Chevrolet for JR Motorsports. Allgaier started his season on a good note. While his teammate Chase Elliott won the season-opening PowerShares QQQ 300 at Daytona, Allgaier finished 12th. Allgaier picked up 2 top tens in the next 2 races at Atlanta and Las Vegas. He led 15 laps in Atlanta and finished 9th in Las Vegas. Allgaier had his best finish of the spring at Talladega during the Sparks Energy 300 in which he led 1 lap and took advantage of Joey Logano's final lap wreck to finish second behind his teammate Elliott Sadler, giving JRM a 1–2 finish.

Allgaier appeared to have won the July race in Daytona. After passing Aric Almirola on the final lap, Allgaier led to the yellow-and-checkered flags to finish first. NASCAR determined that the yellow had flown with Almirola leading, dropping Allgaier to a second-runner up of the season while giving the win to Almirola. Allgaier later finished second yet again at the Food City 300 after passing Kyle Larson on the final lap to place second to Austin Dillon, his third runner-up finish of the season.

On August 20, Allgaier returned to the Cup Series to drive the No. 46 Chevrolet at the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race, replacing former HScott teammate Michael Annett after he suffered from flu-like systems. Allgaier got into a crash with Kyle Busch when Allgaier wrecked at the same time as Busch. In a post-race interview, Busch called Allgaier "the biggest moron out there."

2017

Allgaier continued with JR Motorsports for the 2017 NASCAR Xfinity Series. He led late in the DC Solar 200 at Phoenix and took the lead from Austin Dillon with less than 30 laps to go and held off Ryan Blaney on a final restart to win his first race in five years. With the win, Allgaier made the NASCAR playoffs and also picked up a bonus $100,000 in the Dash 4 Cash program.

Personal life

Allgaier went to Lincoln Land Community College where he majored in engineering from 2004 to 2006.

Allgaier is married, to Ashley, and they have one daughter.

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Sprint Cup Series

Daytona 500

K&N Pro Series West

^* Season still in progress
¹ Ineligible for series points

ARCA Re/Max Series

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)