Each week, The Athletic asks the same 12 questions to a different race car driver. Up next: Justin Allgaier of JR Motorsports, who is both the defending Xfinity Series champion and current points leader. This interview has been condensed, but the full version is available on the 12 Questions podcast. Note: Our usual question No. 11 was dropped due to time constraints with the interview.
1. What was one of the first autographs you got as a kid, and what do you remember about that moment?
I have a really cool shirt from the 1988 Talladega race that has some amazing signatures on it. It’s got Dale Earnhardt Sr. I don’t remember getting it, but I remember the shirt. My mom has got it framed now. Kenny Schrader was at the house one year, and my mom was talking about the shirt and how it was so cool.
I don’t remember who she thought won the race, but she thought (that person) had signed it. And Kenny said, “Dorothy, he didn’t win the race.” And she’s like, “Yeah, they won.” He’s like, “No, Dorothy …” They went back and forth a few times. Then Kenny said, “I won that race. I remember that very well. So they didn’t win the race.”
2. What is the most miserable you’ve ever been inside of a race car?
When I was almost two laps down last year in Phoenix about halfway through the (Xfinity Series championship) race. I just knew that was our shot, right? I’ve done this a long time and been in that final four a lot and had good opportunities, but that was that moment where I just went, “Man, I just gave this one away and I’ve completely ruined it for myself.” That was the most miserable on myself. (Allgaier rallied back to win his first career championship.)
3. Outside of racing, what is your most recent memory of something you got way too competitive about?
Softball. (His daughter Harper plays on a traveling softball team.) She actually had to ask me to back down a little bit. The competitive side of me doesn’t know how to do that. I want it to go well. I got to drive up to Asheville (earlier this month) and go watch the whole weekend of softball. It was really fun for me, because it’s really the first time I’ve been able to show up at a tournament, and I didn’t really care about the outcome. … I saw a different side of the girls, that they were just having a good time and the camaraderie and the teamwork together; they were playing better than they’ve ever played.
4. What do people get wrong about you?
A lot of people assume when I was in Cup, I had equal equipment to what the guys up front were running. I see a lot of comments where somebody will say, “Oh, I wish he would go back to Cup racing” and then you’ll see 100 comments that say, “He had a shot in Cup and didn’t make it last.” Well, look at Alex Bowman when he drove for BK Racing. Look at Clint Bowyer when he drove the (HScott Motorsports) car after me. You could name all these guys who drove in stuff that wasn’t competitive, but they were still able to go on and be ultra successful (in better cars).
I don’t regret that time and I wouldn’t change it. Would I love an opportunity on the Cup side in good equipment? Yeah, absolutely. But if I look back at my career, I wouldn’t have changed anything I’ve done from then to now.
“If you want it easy, don’t come to the 7 car,” Justin Allgaier jokes of his career. “If you think it’s going to be easy, the 7 car is not the path you want to go down.” (David Jensen / Getty Images)
5. What kind of Uber passenger are you and how much do you care about your Uber rating?
I tend to feed off of the Uber driver. If the Uber driver is talkative, I’m going to be talkative. If the Uber driver is quiet, or if he’s got the music on, I’m going to sit back and I’m probably going to fall asleep. Because I can sit in the backseat of a car and fall asleep in about 30 seconds. So just depends on the driver and how they’re driving.
That being said, we just rode in a car (service) last week that (public relations representative Mike) Campbell and I were both confident we weren’t going to make it to the destination. At one point, we were off the ground in the back of this car. It was quite an experience. It’s the first time I’ve ever had that, and I was really quiet because I didn’t know what to say or how to talk.
6. This is a wild-card question. People say you’re the veteran driver of the Xfinity Series and look to you for guidance. But you have to be focused on your own racing at the same time. So how do you balance being a mentor in the series with the desire for your own success?
If I can help somebody a little bit and just be a small part of what helps them, that’s fun for me. … I also look at the situation that happened in Texas with Kris Wright (when Wright was heavily criticized for not holding his line when Allgaier crashed into him). Here I’m the veteran who crashes with somebody out there on the racetrack, and a lot of people were quick to jump on me for taking blame for it after the race was over.
I’m going to look at this like highway rules: I ran in the back of him. It doesn’t matter who is at fault. It doesn’t matter what he did in front of me. I still ran into the back of him. The cool thing, though, was the dialogue that started with Kris and the conversation we had. While it sucks for us, it’s a great learning moment for somebody, but it’s also a great learning moment for a lot of other people who were watching it.
I’m not going out telling people like, “Hey, I’m the best there’s ever been and you should listen to me.” I make plenty of mistakes, but if I can help somebody, or if I can help the series or the sport as a whole grow, I want to be there and I’m going to be a part of it. …
Even if I don’t win another race ever again but I can help grow the sport, then I’ve done my job. That, to me, is what I consider success.
7. This is my 16th year of doing the 12 Questions interviews. You were part of the inaugural edition in 2010, so I’ll go back to a question I asked you then: “What is the first thing you do when you get home from a long weekend?” At the time, you said you lived in an apartment and you obviously didn’t have kids yet, so you said you would just toss the bags on the floor and typically turn the TV on and go back and watch a fast-forwarded version of the race and then go to bed. I imagine it’s different now?
Oddly enough, it is not. If I get home and everybody is already asleep, then that’s what I’m doing. There’s a burning inside me to want to be better, even after the races are over. I still go back and watch the replays every week, still go back and study.
If they’re still awake, which very rarely happens, you hope it’s a good day because they’re excited for you. But the best is when it’s been a bad day and you get home and they’re just as proud and just as happy, and you being home is good as anything.
The part that’s different is I had a lot less stuff in an apartment. I didn’t have clutter. I didn’t own hardly anything. And it was really easy if you needed something fixed: You called the landlord, and you said, “Hey, I need this fixed.” So I joke with my wife I can go back to apartment living right now. Give me a 750-square-foot apartment and we’ll make it work. If we’ve got to sleep in bunk beds, I don’t care.
8. Other than one of your teammates, name a driver who you would be one of the first people to congratulate them in victory lane, if they won a race.
After every win, Josh Williams randomly appears with a Yoo-hoo in victory lane. I don’t know where the Yoo-hoos come from; I’m assuming they just have them in their cooler. A lot of people think we’re cracking a beer, but it’s actually just chocolate milk.
But it doesn’t matter where we win, it doesn’t matter how his day has gone — he’s down there. That’s really cool to me. So when he gets that opportunity, I’m gonna be there and be a part of it.
9. How much do you use AI technology, whether for your job or your daily life?
I have tried to use it some. I’m not great at it. I also am a little worried AI is going to take over the world. So I’m like, “If I don’t input all of my data, maybe it won’t steal all of my data.” But I’m pretty sure that’s not the case.
I do like the AI videos of the babies. I saw the babies doing “Tommy Boy” and it was so awesome. I can’t even describe to you how awesome it was. But it’s also super creepy, and I’m going to be the guy who says “I told you so” when the AI takeover happens.
10. What is a time in your life you felt was really challenging, but you are proud of the way that you responded to it?
Can I just put my whole career in there? (Laughs.) We laugh all the time like, “If you want it easy, don’t come to the 7 car.” If you think it’s going to be easy, the 7 car is not the path you want to go down.
In my Cup career, I didn’t handle it well. I didn’t handle the adversity well, I didn’t handle not running good. It’s shifted in my post-Cup career. Even when we don’t have good days, I’m able to be more grateful of the job I get to do and less miserable I didn’t get the good finish I wanted.
12. Each week, I ask a driver to give me a question for the next person. The last one was Álex Palou and he wants to ask you about oval racing. He wants to know how you feel the limit of the tires on an oval compared to a road or street course because he says that’s something he’s still trying to figure out. (Note: The Palou interview was conducted before he won the Indy 500 and got his first oval victory.)
It’s funny, because I don’t know where the limit of the tire is on a road course, but I have so much of an easier time of feeling that on an oval. The Xfinity Series car is great for me because the Cup Series car, I would say that’s the hardest part. When I go drive Cup, whether it be the 40 car at Daytona or filling in for Kyle (Larson) in the 5 car, I struggle with finding a little bit of the tire because it is a short sidewall, real low profile. The car has a ton of grip. The tire has a ton of grip. IndyCar is the same way, right? Really wide tires, lots of grip. An Xfinity car has got the narrower tire, taller sidewall, more flex. It’s probably the easiest car I’ve ever driven to find the limit of the tire.
So if Alex were to ever get in an Xfinity car and feel the tire like he does, he’d go, “Oh man, this is way easier than I thought.” It would be way more comfortable.
(Allgaier said he’ll submit his question for the next person when he knows who it is.)
(Top photo of Justin Allgaier at qualifying for last weekend’s Charlotte Xfinity race: Logan Riely / Getty Images)
