Garrett Smithley was enjoying a meal at a local Mexican restaurant last year in Mooresville, North Carolina, when Justin Allgaier walked up.
The two are competitors in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, although Smithley doesn’t have many starts. But he was driving for B.J. McLeod last year, and McLeod’s organization uses previously-run JR Motorsports cars – the team Allgaier is a full-time driver for.
“He knew that information,” Smithley said of the cars. “So, he was asking me about the chassis number and was like, ‘Oh, that was a good car!’ He sat there and talked to me for about 10 minutes, encouraging and pumping me up. He’s just always been a super-nice guy.”
It’s hard to find someone from the garage who doesn’t have a nice thing to say about Allgaier. The 37-year-old is not only a NASCAR veteran, but one who has made a career for himself in the Xfinity Series through two different stints. Allgaier ran full-time in the series from 2009 through 2013 before returning in 2016 after a brief, tough tenure in the Cup Series. He hasn’t left since.
Wayne Auton, the NASCAR Xfinity Series managing director, jokingly calls Allgaier the “senior citizen” of the garage. Allgaier, as Smithley, Auton, and others will attest, he’s become the series leader.
“The way he handles drivers is just awesome,” said Auton. “He’ll come and tell me, ‘I’m going to talk to this driver,’ and he does it in such a professional way.”
For four years, Noah Gragson had access to Allgaier as a teammate at JR Motorsports. Whether it was Allgaier lending time to himself or Sam Meyer, Gragson was continually impressed by Allgaier’s commitment to teaching.
‘When you’re a young guy, you don’t know the questions you need to be asking, especially coming into the Xfinity Series,” said Gragson. “You just don’t know what the right feel is for the car.
“I really appreciate Justin’s work ethic and his friendship and his teammate bond. He’s really opened-minded and willing to go the extra mile to help anybody out.”
Allgaier has embraced the role of leader in the garage. But it comes with a balance.
“I’m still competing against drivers so you don’t want to be out of bounds,” said Allgaier. “Every driver makes mistakes, it’s just a matter of scale and how you make them. But sometimes younger drivers don’t get the credit for making the good decisions they make, so we’ve talked a lot about that.”
Not all mistakes are malicious, Allgaier explained. And sometimes, a driver might not understand why that mistake happened the way it did.
NASCAR officials, like Auton, are well aware the Xfinity Series is full of younger drivers looking to make a name for themselves. Those same drivers, however, hope to be on the fast track to the Cup Series. Allgaier has nothing but respect for Auton’s role or the other officials who mentor drivers, but Allgaier, who loves being a series regular, wanted to play a part.
“I basically told (Auton), I love this series, and I love where I’m at, so how do I help? How do I help you?” Allgaier said. “How do I help the series get better? That’s been important to me. It’s hard when you still make mistakes. That’s where it becomes difficult is when I’m still actively making mistakes.”