Penske Racing newcomer Justin Allgaier hopes to reach NASCAR zenith
Penske Racing's Justin Allgaier is ninth in the NASCAR Nationwide Series standings. // LaDon George, NASCAR Scene
There’s a reason why Penske Racing’s Justin Allgaier is nicknamed “The Little Gator.”
At 5 feet 6 inches tall, he has a physique more closely resembling a jockey than a race-car driver, but the 22-year-old Allgaier appears to have no problem muscling a 3,400-pound stock car around a track. And inside his No. 12 Dodge, he becomes focused on one thing and one thing only: Going to the front.
"I'm much more like Kyle Busch; I kind of like to let it all hang out," Allgaier said when asked to compare himself to other drivers that he competes against in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
"It gets me in trouble sometimes," the Riverton, Ill., native said about his aggressive-driving style. "Earlier in my career, when I started racing ARCA, we either won the race, or they towed me back in with the wrecker. I've been trying to pull the reins back. My ultimate goal is to race like Mark Martin. He might not run up front the entire race, but he's always there at the end, and that's where I'm headed."
After winning the ARCA/ReMax Series championship in 2008, Allgaier moved to NASCAR and made four starts in the Nationwide Series under the Penske banner. Earlier, he made eight starts for MB Motorsports from 2005 to 2008 in what is now known as the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
Now, 10 races into his first full season in the Nationwide Series, the candidate for Raybestos Rookie of the Year finds himself ninth in the series standings and working to find a consistency to match his aggressiveness.
Heading into Saturday's Carquest Auto Parts 300 Nationwide race at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Allgaier is riding high after finishing fifth at Darlington Raceway on May 8, his second top-five of the season.
Allgaier's rookie season has had its ups and downs. In the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway, he crashed and did not finish. But the season took on a brighter outlook three races later at Bristol Motor Speedway on March 21 as he earned his first top-five of his career.
The following week, he earned his second top-10 of the season at Texas Motor Speedway, but he struggled in the next race at Nashville. He rebounded in his next start by finishing eighth at Phoenix but finished 32nd because of a wreck at Talladega Superspeedway and had what he considers his worst outing of the season at Richmond International Raceway, where he finished 38th.
“At Richmond, I didn't know which way was up, and I had a really bad weekend,” Allgaier said.
Allgaier understands that he’s racing against some of the best stock-car racers in the country in the Nationwide Series and realizes he’s going to have good days and bad days. That just comes with the territory of big-time auto racing.
“It makes you dig deep,” Allgaier said about his setbacks this season. “The way I look at it is that God has a plan for everything we do. There's a reason why we're doing what we're doing right now, and I think we can move right back up into the points. “
As much as he dreams about winning a championship some day in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Allgaier knows he has to take his career one step at a time.
“I'm not ready to move to the next level,” he said. “I hope I can run another season in Nationwide, and [crew chief] Chad Walter has done a great job getting me acclimated to these tracks. Do I think I need more laps? The answer is yes. Would I love to jump in a Cup car right now? No question. Yeah, I want to be there, but right now is just not the right time for it. If I can get another season in Nationwide, that would be ideal for me.”
Walter, who worked on Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 5 car in Sprint Cup Series for several years before joinging Penske, says that with the right amount of experience, Allgaier could easily be the next Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon or Jimmie Johnson.
“It's easy to see he's got a lot of talent and a lot more than the rookie stripe gives you,” Walter said. “He adapts to tracks really well. His biggest problem is that he always wants to go fast, and sometimes you can't always manage that.”
Penske Racing's Kurt Busch says Allgaier has progressed quickly, considering his inexperience in the Nationwide Series.
"He does really well on the communication with the crew chief and team members on his program," the 2004 Cup champion said. "When you listen in to him on the radio, he just says the right things about the car, what changes do you want to make, what he’s feeling. So I like that."
Busch is also pleased to see that Allgaier is a realist in recognizing that he needs more seat time before moving to the Cup level.
"I’ve always said that I jumped up too quick," said Busch, who moved from the NASCAR Truck series straight to Cup in 2001 at what is now known at Roush Fenway Racing. "I would have loved to have two seasons in Truck, two seasons in Nationwide. Sometimes you have that luxury; sometimes you don’t. If you have that option to have a little bit more time developing [as a driver], I think that’s a plus.”
Hendrick Motorsports' Martin also believes Allgaier has a bright future ahead of him.
"He certainly did a great job performance-wise and speaks very well and seems very respectful, which is nice to see out of young guys," Martin said.
