Nobody expected Justin Allgaier to have his career-best season in 2026 for a variety of reasons. For one, he’s authored some really impressive campaigns over his illustrious NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series career. Secondly, his longtime crew chief, Jim Pohlman, left in the offseason, and lastly, at 40 years old, you expect his performance to eventually dip.
Allgaier has defied the odds, and in Saturday’s MillerTech Battery 250 at Pocono Raceway, he was able to hold off all challengers in a late-race restart to claim his fifth victory of the opening 17 races of the season. Allgaier marched to the finish line ahead of Brent Crews, a Rookie of the Year contender, by a margin of 0.607 seconds.
Race Results: MillerTech Battery 250 at Pocono
After finishing up a victory celebration on the frontstretch to the delight of the crowd, Allgaier thanked William Byron for giving him the race-winning shove on the race’s final restart.
“First of all, I’ve got to say a huge thank you to William Byron. Because without his shove at the end of the race, it was probably game over,” Allgaier said.
The win, Allgaier’s first ever at Pocono Raceway, allowed the driver to match his career-high for wins in a season, as he also achieved five victories in 2018, and the win marked the 33rd of Allgaier’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series career.
Now, the JR Motorsports driver has 16 races left this year to surpass that total. While wins aren’t easy to come by, it seems like a certainty that Allgaier will achieve more as this year rolls along.
Incredibly, this is shaping up to be Allgaier’s best season of his incredible career.
“This season has been special,” Allgaier stated. “And Andrew Overstreet and this whole 7 team, this pit crew right here, and just all the effort that goes into it.”
William Byron, a NASCAR Cup Series regular, came home with a third-place finish, driving the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, while Haas Factory Team teammates Sam Mayer and Sheldon Creed snagged finishes of fourth and fifth.
Anthony Alfredo, Rajah Caruth, Brandon Jones, Connor Zilisch, and Carson Kvapil rounded out the top-10 finishers in the race.
Jesse Love, who came into the day looking to slice some points off of Allgaier’s massive series points lead, was unable to do so as he was swept up in a crash on the opening lap with Corey Day. As a result of the crash, Day finished last (38th), while Love was 37th.
Allgaier now carries an incredible 250-point lead over Love with seven races remaining until the Chase for the championship begins, and he sits 413 points above the cutline. With his runner-up finish on Saturday, Crews bumped back inside the cutline, as he is now three points above Taylor Gray for the final slot in the top-12 of the standings.
