Justin Allgaier is a near guaranteed winner each season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. With a two season hiatus from the then Nationwide Series to compete in the NASCAR Cup Series, Justin Allgaier has been running in the series since 2009 when he raced for Penske Championship Racing.

Over the years, Justin has amassed 25 career victories in the series with all but three of those racing for Hall of Fame owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. Dale, a 2x Xfinity Series Champion himself, earned 24 career victories over his HoF career tying himself for 10th all time in the series. Dale joined the pioneer driver Tommy Huston, 10th all-time in a record that stood since 2016 when Dale won the ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond that season. Huston had held the honor of 10th all-time since his final win, the 1992 Mountain Dew 400 at Hickory, a 32-year long run.

Allgaier joined his boss and Huston earlier this season when he won his first race of 2024, the Crown Royal Purple Bag Project 200 at Darlington Raceway. This Saturday in the Irish Hill of Michigan, Justin broke through and cemented himself in NASCAR history booting Huston and Earnhardt to take the 10th spot all to himself.

Justin Allgaier led 37 laps and held out through a rain delay to score the historic win. When NASCAR brought the cars down pit road with 1 to go, the fans sitting through the light rain booed at the top of their lungs. They came to see a finished race. I stood just over pit wall looking to the cars as NASCAR ordered the drivers to fire the engines, we were going racing again. The fans cheered!

NASCAR dropped the green for a green-white-checker where Allgaier held off the field until the final caution for Kyle Sieg’s flip on the backstretch. When Allgaier passed the stripe, the fans went nuts and as he came back around for his celebration, you could hear the fans over the high RPMs of the burnout. Justin’s win at Michigan was for sure a popular one with a spectacular fan reaction.

Justin popped the roof hatch and climbed out to an overwhelming cheer in unison coming from the grandstands. Then, he topped it. Somehow, the crowd got even louder when Justin emerged with the stars and stripes and walked up the track. “USA! USA! USA! USA!”

Image: Julian Wayne