Last year Phoenix Raceway was a place where Justin Allgaier and the No. 7 JR Motorsports team celebrated their first-ever Xfinity Series championship. Double overtime restarts saw Allgaier trade blows with the likes of Austin Hill and Riley Herbst. And despite being in the lead on the final lap, he settled for a runner-up finish after seeing Hill mired in traffic. Herbst won the race, and the JRM driver bagged the championship crown. But, amidst the celebration, this race proved that Phoenix Raceway is still out of reach for the driver of the No. 7 car and this hoodoo continued last Saturday.
2019 was the last time when Allgaier celebrated with his team in the victory lane at the Desert Mile. The winless streak stretched to 10 races and once again the JRM driver found himself in a similar situation. It was like deja vu from last year’s championship race. With four laps to go in the race, Justin Allgaier was in the lead en route to snap his winless streak, but then came the dreaded caution.
Nick Leitz spun across the racetrack and crashed on the exit of turn 4 and this allowed Aric Almirola and Brandon Jones to close the gap on Allgaier. As soon as the race went green again, the JRM driver just couldn’t keep up with the charging JGR cars and just like that the 10-race streak extended to 11. And even Allgaier couldn’t help but highlight how unlucky he has been at the racetrack despite solid attempts.
Allgaier told Bob Pockrass, “I really want to love it, but it’s like golf. You’re one hole away from throwing your clubs in the water. You hit a great approach shot to the green, and you’re like, ‘This is the greatest game in the world.’ Racing is the same way, and this race track’s the same way. You come back here every time, thinking you’re going to do it differently, do it better or whatever. We have a running joke, as the #7 team we don’t make it easy, Phoenix is the #7 car of the schedule right now for us.”
The defending Xfinity Series champ is true about how lady luck hasn’t been by his side whenever he’s returned to Phoenix after 2019. The fall races at least have been good for him as in the five starts at the end of the year, he’s either finished P9 or better. But the spring race is just brutal for the #7 JRM team. Just two top 10 results in the last five attempts excluding the P5 finish from last weekend. Well, he did come close to breaking the streak last year, but a flat tire with 5 laps to go derailed his charge to emerge victorious again at Phoenix.
Justin Allgaier on Nick Leitz coming over to apologize for bringing out the caution and how Phoenix is like a golf course for him — and (in that analogy) what he’d do with his clubs after the race Saturday. pic.twitter.com/LhT85XvRw5
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) March 9, 2025
“We blew the left rear tire in the spring last year with three or four laps to go. Just the probability of the caution in those five laps is really high, it’s how it goes.” Allgaier explained. Ideally, the JRM driver would want Alex Bowman and the Chevy team to win on the final lap. A few eyebrows have been raised against Aric Almirola for the way he raced Bowman to the finish. But, surprisingly Allgaier sided with the Toyota driver over his Chevy compatriot.
Justin Allgaier embraces full-contact sport philosophy following a controversial finish at Phoenix
Ever since Christopher Bell and Kyle Busch made peace with each other at COTA during the Cup race, clean and respectful racing has been seen as the template for the 2025 season. But, the finish of the Xfinity Series race at Phoneix was anything but clean, far from it. The driver of the No. 19 JGR Camry knew that if he wanted to win the race, he would need to take the gloves off.
When Allgaier and Almirola were beating and banging for the lead on the restart, Alex Bowman made a cheeky move and took the white flag. It looked like the HMS driver would cruise on to win the race but the JGR driver wasn’t done. He reached the back bumper of the No. 17 Chevy car and made a deep run coming off turns 3 and 4. Bowman surprisingly left the window open for his rival to make a deep run and opted for the high line and that move came back to bite him.
Almirola was level with Bowman exiting turn 4 and then ran the HMS driver up into the wall. Despite Brandon Jones lurking in the background, the JGR driver snatched the win in a somewhat controversial manner. But Allgaier was having none of it, “That same move has happened a thousand times here whether it be for a win or championship. At this point Bob, everything is fair game. We are a full-contact sport, I don’t know that there are rules anymore. Aric and I have been friends for a long time so I was glad to see him being able to rebound. But I’d much rather see myself in the victory lane.”
On the contrary, Bowman wasn’t feeling too good about being used up despite giving Almirola the space on the last lap. “I would’ve hoped that he would’ve given me a lane on exit but he just exited like I wasn’t there. Which, he was better than us for sure. But just tried to capitalize on that restart, trying to win the race and got shoved in the fence and the race car’s destroyed. I figured my best bet was going to the outside there trying to get off the corner. And there was no lane there anymore. Bummer but you’ll have that in big-time auto racing.”
What did you make of the race finish at Phoenix Raceway? After all, it was more than just Rubbin is Racing by Almirola on Bowman.
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