“Silly season” is almost upon us and that means any NASCAR driver that doesn’t have a contract in place for 2016 or beyond is doing what they can to nail one down.
One of those drivers is HScott Motorsport’s Justin Allgaier, who drives the No. 51 Brandt Chevrolet and finished 40th Sunday in the race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway following mechanical issues.
Bloomington, Ill. newspaper The Pantagraph talked with Allgaier, a native of nearby Riverton, Ill., about his status.
“My contract is up at the end of this year, so we’re still trying to figure all of the pieces out, still kind of working through all that,” said Allgaier.
Allgaier is in his second full-time season in the Sprint Cup series after having spent five in the Xfinity Series where he won three races. Allgaier, 29, has only one top-10 in 58 Cup races since 2013, an eighth-place finish earlier this year at Bristol Motor Speedway.
“Obviously the ultimate goal would be to do what we’re doing again, and I have a great relationship with Brandt,” Allgaier told The Pantagraph. “I’ve been very fortunate to have them behind me, so I would hope we could keep putting something together. Their goal would be to have an entirely ag-based car. I know they haven’t given up on that dream and they’ve been actively seeking partners to come in and be a part of the program.”
Allgaier is currently 29th in the driver standings, one spot ahead of the cutoff that would allow him to be part of the Chase for the Sprint Cup should he manage to secure hist first career Sprint Cup win in any of the seven remaining regular season events.
That’s a challenge for a driver with a small team like HScott Motorsports, which Allgaier describes as a “little engine climbing the hill” in the sport.
“We’ve had our struggles being a smaller team,” Allgaier said. “We have less resources, less people, all the different things that add up. I think my team owner, Harry Scott, has done a good job in that we’re trying to do everything we can with what we have. We’re going to try to keep growing and keep doing everything we can and hopefully we can get to that point where we can be a Hendrick Motorsports or a Joe Gibbs Racing.”