The final lap of the first Daytona 500 Duel was a full circle moment of irony for Justin Allgaier and JR Motorsports.
Allgaier, the reigning Xfinity Series champion, spent Thursday morning driving around Daytona International Speedway in a golf cart with team principle L.W. Miller and son Wyatt Miller talking about how cool it would be to advance into the Great American Race.
They drove around Lake Llyod and contemplated fishing but didn’t have any poles with them. Eventually, they returned to the motorhome lot where they were blocking Martin Truex Jr. Allgaier joked that if he’s in the way during the qualifying race, then ‘get out the way.’
It was an interesting dynamic because Truex, as a non-chartered driver had already advanced into the Great American Race on Wednesday night by virtue of his qualifying speed alongside Jimmie Johnson but still could play a role into deciding who else would join him.
Example: If Truex was the highest finishing non-chartered driver in the results, he would have actually advanced into that race, and his spot on time would have been passed to the third-highest driver without a charter from qualifying.
Allgaier.
So, it was tremendously dramatic stuff in the closing laps of the first duel when Truex, Allgaier and JJ Yeley were practically three-wide. Behind the wheel, Allgaier was just trying to get the best result he could, and whatever happened, happened.
But Earnhardt, watching from the JR Motorsports pit box, is trying to do real-time strategy.
“Justin is driving the car,” Earnhardt said. “He makes the choices. I told him before the race, ‘you’re going to do things on instinct and not think. You’re just going to do,’ because that’s how you race here.
“But there were some moments where I’m, like, ‘Man, if he could just push Truex …’ Martin was at the top and (Yeley) at the bottom. They’re kind of neck and neck there for a while. We’re right behind them. Just commit to (truex). Just push (Truex) by (Yeley) and we’re good!”
But no, Allgaier had other plans.
“Justin is, like, ‘No, I’m going to win this f****ng thing. I’m going to the top’ and I was, like, ‘all right then.’
For her part, team co-owner Kelley-Earnhardt Miller, the wife of L.W. and mom of Wyatt, said she was just shouting hysterically.
Allgaier responded that he tried to push Truex but he put his left hand out the window to tell him to stop.
“He needed to get the hell out of the way then,” said Earnhardt with a laugh at one of his legitimate best friends in Truex.
“I had a lot of hours to today to play out all the scenarios and wonder if there might be one hiding somewhere I wasn’t thinking about,” said Earnhardt.
But they advanced straight up over Yeley and now JR Motorsports will make its debut in the NASCAR Cup Series with its reigning champion driver in a program that had a lot of heart and soul poured into it.
“I’ve just been sitting here all day thinking about how badly I wanted this for all of us, and we asked Justin to go on this journey with us,” Earnhardt said. “And he as the driver has to shoulder a lot of the pressure and more pressure than anyone.
“Greg Ives (crew chief) agreed to do this with us and he has had to handle so much pressure to try to put this thing in the field. I wanted it for everybody that was feeling all of that. Kelley said we race, we love to race, and racing is hard, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. This was rough emotionally, but damn it, it’s fun when it works out.”
Barry “B.Hoover” Hoover is the car chief on this effort, completing a group that was just the embodiment of JR Motorsports. And for the organization to make its highest-level debut at Daytona, where Dale and Kelley lost their father, the legendary Dale Earnhardt Sr. is an added layer of special.
“I probably need a psychiatrist to describe it, but … you know, Daddy loved Daytona and loved winning here,” said Dale Jr. “He just loved to win any race here. He loved to add to that number, whatever it was, 36 wins.
“Gosh, I loved coming here as a kid but just a lot of great memories. Then when he passed away, I had to make a decision. I had a career in front of me. I was coming back multiple times, and I had to figure out a way to be okay with it.
“I knew that it wasn’t the track that took him, and I knew that he, wherever he was, still felt the same about Daytona. So, I’ve embraced it. Him losing his life in this property brought this property closer to me. Now, that doesn’t work the same for other people and tragedy, but for me knowing I had to keep coming here, I made some peace with it and embraced the track and love it.”
And that wasn’t lost on Allgaier, who delivered them this moment behind the wheel.
“I just don’t want to let Dale down, don’t want to let Kelley down, don’t want to let our fans down,”
Allgaier said. “Chris Stapleton (who sponsored the entry with his Traveller Whiskey) has been extremely excited about this project with Traveler Whiskey. He’s coming on Sunday hopefully, and I didn’t want him to show up and not have a car in the field, right? That would be pretty weird.
“But, honestly, those last two laps, I thought we were wrecking on the back straightaway. I think (Ty Dillon) pulled up in front of (AJ Allmendinger) and got into the wall, and I thought it was game over. Michael (McDowell) kept pushing, and I think Josh (Berry) was behind Michael, right, and just kept pushing.
“Coming across the line was like this relief that I don’t even know if I got that same relief winning the championship last fall. It was really weird. Like Dale said, this is icing on the cake now. We can go have some fun on Sunday and know that we’re locked into the Great American Race. And feels good. Feels good to say we’re going to start the Daytona 500.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.
