Last week, Justin Allgaier admitted in an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that he had decided to retire at the conclusion of the 2026 season.
Then he started winning, crossing the finish line first in 3 of the first 15 races, doing so for a fourth time on Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway in the Sports Illustrated Resorts 250.
Starting from the 17th position due to qualifying being rained out, Allgaier had confidence in his team. “I told them before the race that we were going to go to victory lane,’’ he said after his win.
The pole-sitter, Jesse Love, led the first 46 laps of the race, taking the stage 1 checkered flag, but Allgaier had already worked his way up to third.
Soon after the stage break, Allgaier made a move inside to pass Love on Lap 55 and lead his first laps of the night, but Love regained the lead toward the end of stage two, setting up an intense battle to end the stage. The No. 7 Brandt Chevrolet Camaro took the stage 2 checkered flag by a mere .337 seconds.
During the stage break pitstops, Allgaier’s team had a fumbled tire exchange, which dropped him to fifth and put Love back in the lead. Just one lap after the restart, Allgaier was back into second place.
The 18-year-old rookie Brent Crews, who started in 33rd position, began to emerge as a real factor in the race. He first passed Allgaier for second and then Love with 70 laps remaining. Shortly after, Love had a tire issue from his last pit stop and had to pit again, practically eliminating him from contention after leading a race-high 87 laps.
After a cycle of green flag pit stops, it was Crews and Allgaier 1-2. The two battled each other in some close-quarters racing, in what Allgaier called “the most fun I’ve had without winning.”
With under 20 to go, Allgaier overtook Crews for the lead and never looked back, stretching the lead to 1.4 seconds as he crossed the checkered flag.
Crews finished second, followed by W. Sawalich, S. Mayer, B. Jones, C. Day, C. Kvapil, K. Larson, T. Gray, and S. Smith, who filled out the remainder of the top ten.
Saturday’s win marked the third for Allgaier in NASCAR’s second national division, and it is a favorite racetrack of his.
“I ran my very first race here, and I fell in love with this racetrack,” Allgaier said.
“It’s not an easy racetrack. I’m sitting in the car. I’m in victory lane. I had to take a minute because I was exhausted, and it takes everything out of you. But at the end of the day, that’s what makes this place fun. That’s what makes it cool. This trophy, and the other two, really make me value the races we’ve run. I remember those races. So now, this one adds to that. You walk by, and you remember everything that went right and everything that went wrong, and you just reminisce.”
Allgaier currently has an average finish of 7.94, the best of his career (9.03 in 2019), and his team owner, Dale Earnhardt Jr., hopes to have him in the No. 7 care for the forseeable future.
“Justin is just incredible,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “He just keeps surprising me with his ability.”
“Whatever else we do going forward, if he finishes off the year and says, ‘You know what? I think I’ve had enough.’ That’s fine too,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “If he runs a couple more years, I’ll be happy about that as well. If he wants to run longer, it’s just pressure on me to keep giving [him] everything he deserves and everything he needs to be successful.”
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