Justin Allgaier has not looked like a 40-year-old driver nearing the end of his NASCAR National Series driving career this season. Not one bit. The 2024 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion has already locked up the regular-season championship after amassing a career-high six victories through the opening 21 races of the season.
Now, the Riverton, IL, native will battle for his second NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship, knowing that he’ll be returning to the series next season.
“I’m so glad that we’ve talked [Allgaier] into coming back for a couple of more years, and not retiring yet, and continuing to see what they can rack up,” Kelley Earnhardt Miller, co-owner of JR Motorsports, said in an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Thursday.
When pressed on whether that meant that Allgaier was back with the team for 2027, Earnhardt Miller explained, “We might have him sticking around.”
She then continued, “I think you can count on him being with us, and seeing him here at JR Motorsports in the future, for sure.”
Allgaier has been one of the most consistent forces in the history of the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. The driver has amassed 34 career wins in the series, and over the last eight seasons, the worst he has finished in the championship standings was fifth in 2021.
With Allgaier’s longtime crew chief, Jim Pohlman, leaving JR Motorsports at the end of the 2025 season, there was concern about how well Allgaier would gel with new crew chief Andrew Overstreet.
“We weren’t sure what the crew chief change was going to do and how the relationship between Andrew Overstreet and Justin was going to work out,” Earnhardt Miller admitted. “But they haven’t had any hiccups with the change.”
Allgaier and Overstreet will look to build upon Allgaier’s already career-high win total of six in 2026 as they attempt to close out another title, and build momentum for 2027 and possibly beyond.
