Justin Allgaier doesn’t let the closest loss of his NASCAR career keep him up at night.
At least not since November.
“After Homestead, none,” Allgaier told NBC Sports on Thursday in a phone interview.
Last July, Allgaier missed out on winning the Xfinity Series’ July race at Daytona International Speedway by the slimmest of margins thanks to a delayed caution for a crash on the backstretch on the final lap.
Instead of Allgaier earning his fourth Xfinity win, it was Aric Almirola who celebrated in victory lane with his first.
“I would say I kind of carried that, even though I wasn’t supposed to or I didn’t want to, I carried it to Homestead,” Allgaier said.
The Illinois native admits lingering feelings on the loss went against the counsel of his wife, Ashley Allgaier.
“My wife is pretty good about ‘when we drive to the airplane, when you get on that airplane, whatever happened today is gone,'” the driver said. “My wife is very, very good for me in a lot of ways. She’s a very, very good at keeping things level. Not letting the highs get too high and not letting the lows too low.”
Homestead represented one of those highs.
The 30-year-old driver, despite not winning in 2016, was one of the four who raced for the Xfinity title in its first season with the elimination playoff format. Competing against his JR Motorsports teammate Elliott Sadler and Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez of Joe Gibbs Racing, Allgaier said it was the best race he’s ever been a part of.
“The fact that it came down to end of the race and all four of us going for the (championship) were battling it out, that was just a cool day,” Allgaier said. “That whole weekend was cool.”
While Suarez won the race and title, Allgaier finished the year third in the standings, which matched his result from 2011.
Since then, Allgaier has been busy. He went to Brazil immediately following the season to compete in the Porsche GT3 Cup. He then ran in the Chili Bowl Nationals where he won a heat race and also went for a tumble.
In the middle of that, Allgaier took his wife and daughter to Walt Disney World for the first time. With 15 days until the first Xfinity Series practice at Daytona, Allgaier estimates he’s spent less than 15 days at home since the biggest race of his career.
“My mindset is actually really good,” Allgaier said. “I hate that it’s called the offseason. It should be called the non-racing season.”
Allgaier is entering his second season with JR Motorsports in the No. 7 Brandt Chevrolet and his seventh full Xfinity season since 2009. Allgaier spent his offseason in a “really good place.”
“(I) haven’t thought about the what ifs, coulda-woulda-should ofs,” Allgaier said. “I look at 2017 as a new page, new chapter. It’s just like when you go to school. You get a new page in a notebook or you get a new notebook and you’re like ‘nothing in that other notebook makes a difference. … It’s going forward and I think that’s always been the case.”
When Allgaier started his 2016 “notebook,” he didn’t know he would eventually make one Cup start, in the night race at Bristol Motor Speedway in relief of his former HScott Motorsports teammate Michael Annett. It was Allgaier’s 76th Cup start after his two seasons with HScott and four starts in 2013.
Driving the No. 46, Allgaier started 39th and finished last after getting caught up in Lap 358 crash.
If it winds up being his last Cup Start, Allgaier is “100 percent” satisfied with what he accomplished at NASCAR’s top level.
“There’s tons and tons of race car drivers who would love the opportunity to just go into the pits of a Cup series race,” Allgaier said. “I can say I’ve been able to line up against some of the best races in the world, beat some of them at times. Obviously, the last (Cup start) didn’t end the way I wanted it to end, but at the same time … I’m not disappointed at all with my Cup career as a whole. I’m just blessed to be doing what I’m doing.”
Allgaier starts his 2017 Xfinity “notebook” on Feb. 25 at Daytona.
