By: Ashley McCubbin

Justin Allgaier has been fast every week this year in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, but there’s something missing – a visit to victory lane. It is not due to lack of effort, though.

“To be honest, it’s hard to explain the year that’s been 2020, whether it be the pandemic or everything else going on at the race track,” he told POPULAR SPEED. “We’ve had so many races that we’ve led laps, won both stages, had a car easily capable of winning and have had things take us out of contention. That’s been disappointing.

“We as a race team can look at it as we can let it tear us down, and be frustrated, and really be counter productive, or we can look at all these moments and look at all the positives. We’ve got speed every week, we know when we put ourselves in the right position we can keep pace with the cars that are the best in the field week-in-week-out, and when we’re off on a day, we’ve been able to rally and get our cars better.”

Through the 17 races thus far, the JR Motorsports veteran has led 417 laps and scored four top-five’s and nine top-10 finishes. The bigger shock, though, is witnessing four DNFs with four results outside of the top-20.

“We’ve done everything right; we’ve just been in the wrong situation a lot of the times,” Allgaier continued. “I don’t know how to fix that. I’ll be perfectly honest. I don’t know how to fix that and that’s been something that’s frustrated me not from a competition standpoint, but more of a just wondering what we’ve got to do to change it up. What changes up the scenario? What puts us in a better position? What is something we can do better as a team, or I can do better as a driver? What is that key that’s going to make us tip the scales and give us the results that are much needed.”

The lack of victories hasn’t affected his confidence, though, as he feels very strongly about their chances moving forward, after what they were able to learn at Homestead-Miami Speedway and Kentucky Speedway in regards to their intermediate program. Along with JR Motorsports running well at the short tracks at JR Motorsports across the board – as evident with him and teammate Noah Gragson fighting for the win, the speed has proven to be there.

Now, as Allgaier says, it comes down to executing strongly to get the results.

He will hope to get a boost through the rule changes that have been recently made in regards to the starting line-up procedure and implementing the choose cone as tested at the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race. Since going back to racing after the pandemic break, he has drawn no better than fourth – something that may change moving forward.

While understanding that you can rally from a poor start, it has offered a new perspective in the process.

“We’ve got to do a better job of taking what we have and maximizing it, and I’m going to put that on my shoulders,” he commented. “I have to do a better job fearing you’re behind and not trying to make up for it in the short term. Usually when you make that first mistake, it’s followed by a second mistake, and usually that second mistake is followed by sitting on a wrecker somewhere. I have to make sure we don’t do that and put ourselves in that position.

“Definitely a lot riding on my shoulders right now that I feel I am working on as a driver and you can be a rookie or a veteran, and there’s always things you can do better. Right now, I think we’re just working on that to make sure we’re in the best position we can be.”