Despite all the success, the past month has been a challenge for Justin Allgaier, specifically as it pertains to his duties at Hendrick Motorsports and driving the No. 48 while Alex Bowman continues his recovery.
On one hand, since taking over the car at Las Vegas, Allgaier has ripped off finishes of fourth, first, first and third for his day job on Saturdays in the O’Reilly Series for JR Motorsport, but it’s also been a grind on the Cup side.
“I feel like I’m failing at all of it, if I’m being honest with you,” Allgaier told Motorsport.com over the weekend at Rockingham. “You know, the same things that are making us good on Saturday is what’s hurting us on Sunday.”
He’s referring to the owner points and how qualifying orders are determined each week. Allgaier continually is among the last to take his timed laps in the O’Reilly Series when the track has the most grip. He qualifies up front, gets premium pit stall selections, and finishes up front.
When he jumps in the Cup car, it’s down on points and he’s among the first to turn his laps. He qualifies in the middle of the pack and every pit stop is a grind and the results are not where the 2024 NOAPS champion wants them to be.
“Like, last week, I was just three-hundreths off Kyle Larson, my teammate, but that’s the difference of 10-to-15 spots. The one thing that stands out to me, especially with the NextGen car, is just how tight the times are and it’s really a credit to the guys who jump back and forth and have success in both cars.”
Allgaier said he’s worked hard to give crew chief Blake Harris and his No. 48 engineers all the time they deserve while also not shorting Andrew Overstreet and their No. 7 squad.
“I’m having six or seven meetings a week between the two cars, between video review, sim review and SMT review,” Allgaier said. “There are some days where I don’t know if my brain even knows how to function.
“I think I went back-and-forth from Concord and Mooresville like seven times a couple of weeks ago. So there’s a lot going on but I think the biggest thing for me is making sure I can help the 48 guys, and there are a lot of news guys on that team, find some momentum started to Alex can jump right back in that thing and take off.”
Allgaier will be in the car this weekend at Bristol but he also says Bowman is putting ‘awesome’ work in to recover from vertigo.
“I hope for his sake that Alex is able to get back in soon because that would be a Cinderella story,” Allgaier said. “I would love to see him get back in and those guys click off a few wins right away.
“That would be fantastic. I don’t know that I’ll get them there but we’re actively trying to do that. I think my role is just being in the race car every week, keep four fenders on it, and build them momentum for the best version of the 48 team.”
