Penske Racing has big plans for Justin Allgaier
The similarities between Justin Allgaier and Ryan Newman are many. Like Newman, Allgaier made a name for himself on the dirt tracks in the Midwest. Like Newman, Allgaier signed with Penske Racing.
No, Allgaier didn’t get an engineering degree from Purdue the way Newman did. And Penske has no immediate plans to put him in a Sprint Cup car any time soon.
But Penske also doesn’t have a history of signing drivers without having the hope they could someday turn into something great.
So while Allgaier will, for now, run a limited Nationwide Series schedule for Penske Racing, the team certainly won’t hold him back if his talent proves to be superior.
Michael Nelson, vice president of operations for Penske Racing, talks about plans for Allgaier that resemble the program that saw Newman come up through the Automobile Racing Club of America, what was then known as the Busch Series and finally enter the Cup series.
“We don’t take it lightly when we bring somebody along,” Nelson said. “The sky’s the limit, just depending on how well it goes.”
Allgaier is scheduled to make his Nationwide debut for the team this weekend at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, driving the No. 12 Dodge. He’ll also run at Texas and Homestead later this year in what amounts to an on-track tryout.
“We’re taking it slow,” Nelson said. “[Team owner] Roger [Penske has] always been very big about promoting from within, from guys like myself to the drivers as well.”
And that’s fine with Allgaier, who has gone from running the ARCA series for his parents to one of the biggest organizations in motorsports.
“It’s a lot different going from my family-owned team to up there,” Allgaier said. “There are a lot of things that are going to change. I’m trying to get used to all that.”
It will be a big change for the 22-year-old from Riverton, Ill. He’s been used to racing in relative obscurity, but now the spotlight of a major team in one of NASCAR’s national series will be on him.
But he’s been impressive in every series he’s raced in thus far, from quarter-midgets to midgets to ARCA. At age 14, Allgaier became the youngest driver in the long history of the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals in Tulsa, Okla., to qualify for the A-Main race.
Allgaier later raced in late models and dirt modified cars before his family decided to take him ARCA racing. In 2004 and ’05, he ran a part-time schedule before running the full schedule in 2006.
His first ARCA victory was historic, when in 2006 he became the first Springfield, Ill.-area resident to win at the Illinois State Fairgounds in the 72 years of major auto racing there.
Allgaier finished 10th in points in 2006 and was fourth last year. This season, Allgaier ranks third after a thrilling last-lap pass to win at Talladega Superspeedway last weekend.
And who did Allgaier pass to win that race? None other than “Sliced Bread” himself, the Joe Gibbs Racing prodigy Joey Logano, who said Allgaier “schooled him” on the last lap.
The victory was important for Allgaier, of course, coming not long after Penske signed him.
But it also signaled to the NASCAR world that Penske officials knew what they were doing when they signed him.
“That made my weekend,” Nelson said. “It just backs up what we’ve heard and what we’ve observed already. A lot of the guys at the shop came up to me and were real excited with him coming on board.”
Allgaier was first introduced to Penske Racing by former team executive Don Miller, who knew the Allgaier family.
“Don had mentioned him to me at some point in time” Nelson said. “We watch the ARCA races, so we got a chance to watch him in that series. We had some people in the ARCA series go out of their way to mention him to us as somebody who had a lot of talent.”
Nelson met with Allgaier at an ARCA race earlier this year and later brought him to the Penske Racing shop to meet with Penske Performance Inc. President Tim Cindric.
“Tim Cindric and I went to lunch with him, just go to know a little but about him,” Nelson said. “We were impressed with his desire and motivation, just his personality traits. He seemed to be a real genuine person, hard worker, really understood the cars. He asked all the right questions, so that piqued out interest.”
After watching a couple more ARCA races, the team decided to sign him. Now, it’s all in Allgaier’s hands.
“This year, the biggest accomplishment is just getting some seat time and getting some experience,” Allgaier said. “Next year, obviously, everybody wants to win a race. That would be huge if we were able to do that, but at the same time, there’s 10 to 15 Sprint Cup guys in the race every weekend. It makes it a lot tougher.
“Right now, just getting comfortable in the car, getting seat time, getting as good a run as we possible can. For all of us, a top-five or a top-10 would be really huge. That’s what we’re shooting for.”
